Could Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson be the next First Minister of Scotland?
I shudder at the thought but it has been on my mind quite a bit today. Scotland hasn't elected the Tory party since the Westminster election in 1955. After that the Labour Party took over and eventually in large part thanks to Thatcher would become unbeatable in Scotland until the rise of the Scottish National Party in the mid 2000s and onward.
The independence referendum in 2014 helped the SNP become a political giant as a party but it also led to a bit of a revival for the Scottish Tories. With Scottish Labour caught between wanting to appeal to their left base in Scotland and wanting to stand with the Tories in opposing independence they made themselves unappealing to both their base who just saw them standing with "the enemy" and unionists who saw them as half hearted supporters of the union. Now the Scottish Tories have the second most MSPs and the second most MPs in Scottish seats and managed to beat big SNP names like Angus Robertson and the former First Minister Alex Salmond (that one still hurts me).
So the Tories have come second which is a big achievement and Ruth will just avoid all talk of policy and shout no to independence despite nobody talking about it so she can keep the unionists fearing another referendum and stay away from showing the Scottish Tories as being just like their English counterparts so that they can hold on to second as they could never get any more support from anywhere else.
Then just a couple of weeks ago Scotgov/the SNP release the growth commission report to give people an idea of what an independent Scotland could really look like and open up debate about it. Along with her no surrender, long live the union speech after this Ruth also gave another speech at Glasgow University in which she actually spoke about other things. For example she talked about our need for immigration and how the Tories down south can't make more cuts to the NHS and in fact need to start spending on it to get it out of crisis. She sounded rather like she wasn't actually a Tory and that she would actually stand uo for Scots and get her pals down South to do what we want for once. Now she says this after years of avoiding talk of policy and voting against measures that would have helped stop the deliberate ruining of our NHS but how many will pay attention to that?. Could they be positioning themselves to not only take the unionist vote but some from Labour and the SNP voters who don't support independence? I believe it is unlikely to work but Scottish Labour are also targetting SNP voters. As I said I don't believe it will happen but it is the first time I have considered the possibility that it even could happen so it is bothering me. It looks like Ruth may believe she is in with a chance of making history.
The independence referendum in 2014 helped the SNP become a political giant as a party but it also led to a bit of a revival for the Scottish Tories. With Scottish Labour caught between wanting to appeal to their left base in Scotland and wanting to stand with the Tories in opposing independence they made themselves unappealing to both their base who just saw them standing with "the enemy" and unionists who saw them as half hearted supporters of the union. Now the Scottish Tories have the second most MSPs and the second most MPs in Scottish seats and managed to beat big SNP names like Angus Robertson and the former First Minister Alex Salmond (that one still hurts me).
So the Tories have come second which is a big achievement and Ruth will just avoid all talk of policy and shout no to independence despite nobody talking about it so she can keep the unionists fearing another referendum and stay away from showing the Scottish Tories as being just like their English counterparts so that they can hold on to second as they could never get any more support from anywhere else.
Then just a couple of weeks ago Scotgov/the SNP release the growth commission report to give people an idea of what an independent Scotland could really look like and open up debate about it. Along with her no surrender, long live the union speech after this Ruth also gave another speech at Glasgow University in which she actually spoke about other things. For example she talked about our need for immigration and how the Tories down south can't make more cuts to the NHS and in fact need to start spending on it to get it out of crisis. She sounded rather like she wasn't actually a Tory and that she would actually stand uo for Scots and get her pals down South to do what we want for once. Now she says this after years of avoiding talk of policy and voting against measures that would have helped stop the deliberate ruining of our NHS but how many will pay attention to that?. Could they be positioning themselves to not only take the unionist vote but some from Labour and the SNP voters who don't support independence? I believe it is unlikely to work but Scottish Labour are also targetting SNP voters. As I said I don't believe it will happen but it is the first time I have considered the possibility that it even could happen so it is bothering me. It looks like Ruth may believe she is in with a chance of making history.
26-30, M
