LEGEND has it that the two guns on display at the Glenlivet distillery were given to George Smith, the first operator of a legal distillery in the Highlands, for protection by the laird against bootlegger rivals.
Smith had in 1824 angered other local distillers by successfully applying for a licence to make whisky.
They believed it hampered their efforts to undermine the Excise Act, passed the previous year and largely ignored by distillers who preferred to operate away from the prying eyes and clutching hands of the taxman.
So angry were they against Smith that Duke of Gordon, the landlord at Glenlivet, provided his tenant with guns to fend off potential attackers.
Things are friendlier now in the area which forms part of the Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey constituency, according to SNP candidate Gordon Leadbitter.
“Because of the extremes of weather that they have to deal with, the remoteness of some of these communities, they have a natural reliance on each other and that’s a very positive thing,” he said. “It’s a really big community thing.”
But clearly a defiant Highland spirit endures. As with many Tory-SNP marginals, it would be tempting to say that Leadbitter’s fate will be decided by the strength of the Unionist vote or the Yes vote. But Moray defies easy categorisation.
It was the most pro-Brexit part of Scotland in the 2016 referendum but had been represented from 2001 to 2017 by Angus Robertson, easily one of the most vocally pro-EU figures in the SNP, even if he did demand a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
And it was it not especially for or against independence, coming roughly in the middle of local authorities in term of a Yes-No split.
At 4748 square kilometres, it is one of the largest constituencies by area in Scotland – compared with just 19 square kilometres for the teensy Glasgow West.
A new constituency after the recent boundary review, it takes the western parts of Douglas Ross’s old Moray constituency such as the towns of Elgin and Forres and welds them with parts of the expired Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency.
Ross went eastwards – after his colleague David Duguid was sacked on his sickbed – to fight the new Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat.
That means that in this new Highland seat, we have a two-horse race between the SNP and the Tories, with Leadbitter facing off against council leader Kathleen Robertson.
Robertson did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this piece.
Also in the running are the LibDems’ Neil Alexander, Labour’s James Hynam, Euan Morrice for the Scottish Family Party, the Reform candidate Steve Skerret and Green hopeful Draeyk Van Der Horn.
The two seats which were combined to make the new Moray West constituency provide few clues to how close this year’s race will be.
In 2019, Ross (below) was re-elected with a massively reduced majority which put him just 513 votes ahead of the SNP.
Drew Hendry, who held the old Inverness seat for the SNP, commanded a more convincing majority of 10,440 votes with his Tory rival taking just 28.8% of the vote.
Leadbitter, who voted for Humza Yousaf in last year’s SNP leadership contest and defines himself as a “socialist”, exudes a certain amount of quiet confidence he can win the seat.
While his left-wing politics might offend some of the small-c conservative sensibilities found in rural Scotland, he describes himself as a “pragmatist” and speaks highly of his Tory rival’s ability to reject partisan politics to get things done on Moray Council.
Leadbitter said the constitutional question came up “quite regularly” on the doorstep. But the key issue, as candidates across the UK say, is the cost-of-living crisis.
Are voters bothered about the SNP’s independence offering this election? Leadbitter said: “When people are telling you on the doorstep that they’re struggling to pay their electricity bill or they’re struggling to put food on the table, that’s an immediate and higher priority for them.
“You have to respect that and deal with that.”
He said the job of SNP candidates was to “multitask” by trying to improve people’s lives in the immediate sense while making the case for independence, though he conceded there remained a “job of work” to do with regard to the latter.
The 49-year-old joined the SNP around the age of 18 and has worked for the party in some capacity for around 25 years. He has worked for Angus Robertson (above), Moray MSP Richard Lochhead and most recently for Gordon candidate Richard Thomson.
His work for members of parliament, including his 17 years on the council, has given him an insight into the guts of the political machine.
Leadbitter says that he knows politicians will spout “fire and fury” for the cameras, while making common cause on issues for their constituents behind the scenes.
Whether he will get to engage in the parliamentary pantomime and the hard work of getting stuff done depends on voters rallying behind him on July 4.
