THE Tories spent £602,000 on their campaign, after which they won one extra seat and held onto previous gains.
In all, they spent £247,000 on mailshots to electors and £119,000 on advertising. That included £414 for a quarter page advertisement in the Church of Scotland magazine Life And Work. The records show that, due to a clerical error, the Tories paid th
e Kirk 25p too little for the advert. Their cheque should have been for £414.25. The Church of Scotland wrote off the debt.
The Conservatives paid an advertising and PR company £8,217 to oversee advertising and publicity stunts.
Their receipts reveal that the Tories spent £1,237 on the launch of their business manifesto, including £397 on a breakfast buffet for 50 people.
Hiring a hotel room in Central Edinburgh for a speech on the Union by Annabel Goldie cost £600, with tea and coffee for 55 people costing £110. Mineral water at the event cost the Tory party £4.
The accounts also reveal that the Tories spent £11.49 on a kilo of Nestlé Aero Hot Chocolate and £8.19 on 440 Tetley tea bags in order to keep HQ staff going through the election.
The Conservatives took the step of snapping up potentially useful internet addresses.
They spent £25 acquiring the rights to www.nhyesscotland.com and used the site to deliver a pro-Conservative health-related message.
The full article contains 242 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
