THE Tories believe they are on the up in Scotland. They point to opinion polls that show them leapfrogging Labour into second place in Holyrood after May’s election.
In Ruth Davidson, the party believe, they have finally found someone who can help them shake off the “toxic” label that has haunted them in Scotland these past three decades.
As Davidson pointed out ahead of last May’s General Election, many of those voting would not even have been born when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.
Indeed, the lowering of the voting age for this year’s election to the Scottish Parliament to 16 means that first-time voters were born in 2000, some 11 years after the party booted Thatcher out.
It seems as if that toxic label has now been handed from the Conservatives to Labour, and there is little Kezia Dugdale’s party can do to stop the haemorrhaging votes, a fact that even Dugdale herself acknowledged during her leadership campaign last year.
Ironically, one of the main reasons for that decline was Labour standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tories during the referendum campaign.
The “toxic Tory” branding always hid that the party had a fairly solid support up here.
In fact, the 14.9 per cent vote share the party achieved last May was the worst result since the Scottish Tories formed in 1965.
The Tories never died. Even at their lowest ebb, they were still breathing.
That’s a lesson for Labour, a lesson they seem to be doing their damnedest to ignore.
If the Tories do become the official opposition in Holyrood next year, it will be more to do with Labour’s collapse rather than an upsurge in support for Davidson’s party.
Indeed the two polls that showed the Tories in front of Labour seem to be blips; the last two polls have shown them five to eight points behind Labour. They’ve also shown a swing to Ukip.
Could it be that David Cameron’s referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU has cost them second place?
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here