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After the Glasgow launch of her party’s 2016 Holyrood election manifesto, Ruth Davidson hopped in a car and zoomed along the M8 back to Edinburgh. Suddenly, a tyre blew out and she and three male aides found themselves on the hard shoulder. The trio of sharp-suited millennials knew their way around an iPhone but hadContinueContinue reading “A modern Tory who took the fight to the SNP”

Bang on 11 as advertised (she is ex-TA, after all), Ruth Davidson strode through the doors and over to the podium with martial resolve. Her expression was neither anguish nor joy, but stoic relief, as though she had climbed more or less unscathed from the wreckage of a plane crash. The stiff upper lip wobbledContinueContinue reading “Ruth Davidson leaves the stage with smile of relief”

Ruth Davidson was never destined for greatness, her trajectory guided by an invisible hand of history like some politicians’ careers seem to be. Everything she has achieved, she has achieved through hard graft and determination. Everything she has done, for good and for ill, has been shaped by a personal ethic that moulds her ToryismContinueContinue reading “A Tory of gut and grit”

Jo Swinson has had quite the summer. She was elected the first female leader of the Liberal Democrats, became the face of Britain’s anti-Brexit movement, and was even touted as caretaker Prime Minister of a government of national unity. All I got was torrential rain and stung by a wasp. Amid the chaos, there hasn’tContinueContinue reading “Realignment: Can Jo Swinson change the face of UK politics?”

‘O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us/To see oursels as ithers see us,’ a rumination by the national poet, has become cherished folk wisdom for generations of Scots. It is a counsel in humility: we don’t know half of what we don’t know. Sometimes, an outsider is needed to hold up a mirror toContinueContinue reading “Scotland’s Empire of denial”

The demise of the United Kingdom has been foretold many times — in wars civil and foreign, amid religious strife, and across upheavals political, economic and industrial. In every age, the doomsayers scry the same vision: Britain has had a good innings but, thanks to a combination of hubris, ignorance and immutable progress, our fadingContinueContinue reading “Standing up to the SNP is the only way to save the Union”

Ruth Davidson’s summer of set-backs continues apace. The Scottish Conservative leader saw her endorsement turn into a monkey’s paw, as Sajid Javid, then Michael Gove and finally Jeremy Hunt succumbed to its ministrations. The Tory leadership election ended with a thumping victory for her nemesis Boris Johnson, whom Davidson believes could undo all her effortsContinueContinue reading “Brexiteers can’t handle the Ruth: Tories would be nowhere without Davidson”

Boris Johnson made his first prime ministerial visit to Scotland today, so let’s hope he’s swotted up on Welsh public policy. The new PM might not be aware but the actions of Welsh ministers are the key performance indicator for the Scottish Government. When Nicola Sturgeon wants to turn the screw on the UK GovernmentContinueContinue reading “Tory truce: How Boris and Ruth could work together”

The flaxen-haired tornado that has stormed through the corridors of Westminster in the past 72 hours has left much political carnage in its wake. Seventeen ministers resigned or were sacked by Boris Johnson and replaced in large part by fellow-travellers committed to the hardest of Brexits, including a no-deal variation to ensure the UK departsContinueContinue reading “‘The Progressives’: Could Boris and Brexit prompt a new Scottish party?”

David Mundell is such a mainstay of Scottish politics, it will be odd not to see him at the despatch box batting away SNP grievances or plodding welly-deep through sodden fields extolling the wonders of Scottish produce at agricultural fairs. (He might say the two experiences have much in common.) His sacking as Secretary ofContinueContinue reading “Boris sacks his Scottish general on eve of battle”