Compare the turbulence of the past five years to the Scottish election results. No change – or change so piddling as to make mentioning it seem pedantic. Holyrood’s elite was effectively reproduced intact.
Scottish Conservatives
Boris Johnson won back precious credibility with Britain’s vaccination programme. But it couldn’t last, and the Tories are mired in scandals to an extent we haven’t seen since John Major’s years of sleaze.
Source Direct: Sleaze Sleaze Me
Ruth Davidson capitalised on the anti-2014 backlash, but those fires are almost extinguished, and the new leader sounds so shrill that the Party seems tempted to relegate him from frontline campaigning. One party source said of Ross, “he needs to smile more”. So far, he’s had nothing to smile about.
Source Direct Election Profile: The Scottish Conservatives
What does Boris Johnson think he’s doing in Scotland? Perhaps he hopes that showing a little gallantry at the coalface can charm our national pants off. But few political leaders are so ill-equipped for a charm offensive.
Source Direct: Johnson’s Jaunt – Kamikaze Unionism?
“The disappearance of the gradualists is also their final triumph. Aided by a frenzied media and political opposition, they have come to symbolise independence without the need to manifest any concrete support for the cause, or demonstrate any viable strategy.”
David Jamieson: The twilight and triumph of the SNP gradualists
“Clearly, a mood of desperation has gripped party managers north and south. A project to save the Scottish Tories from another distant second place in the 2021 Scottish election has swung into action.”
Analysis: Can Ross/Davidson break the Scottish Tories’ ‘nationalism of diminishing returns’?
What would you do if you were Prime Minister for a day? It’s not a bad question to get a sense of someone’s character and creativity. Douglas Ross, hotly tipped to be the next Scottish Tory leader after Jackson’s Carlaw’s shock departure yesterday, was once asked this in an interview, and, quick as flash, without […]
The calibre of political opposition in Scotland is woeful
“As ever, a small group of particularly loud voices was presented as representing ‘parent power’. None of this is new in Scotland but for the sake of our kids I really, really wish we could move beyond it.”