Leader: A fight on her hands

Published on Saturday 5 November 2011 21:22

THE election of Ruth Davidson as leader of the Scottish Conservative party looks more like the beginning of her problems than their resolution.

Although she writes optimistically in Scotland on Sunday today “My fellow candidates… are not my opponents. They are my colleagues”, the reality, so far as Murdo Fraser and his supporters are concerned, must be very different.

The arithmetic of the election told its own story, with Fraser securing 2,096 first preference votes to Davidson’s 2,278. But this was not just a close-run election between rival individuals; the Fraser camp represents an alternative political party. As such, how can its supporters remain within the Scottish Tory party which they sought to dissolve? How can Fraser credibly represent at Holyrood a party he has denounced as “toxic”? It is difficult to see how he and his supporters can now stay in the party.

But considering the paucity of her support among MSPs, such a departure could leave Davidson leading a mere rump at Holyrood and all sorts of problems. Her perceived position as the preferred choice of the London leadership may also disadvantage her at a time when right-of-centre politics is striving for a Scottish identity in confronting the SNP’s drive for independence.

It is lucky the new Scottish Tory leader is a fighter. When it comes to leading a united party she may have a bigger fight on her hands than even she is prepared for.

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Mercutio

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 12:52 PM

Mr Otton and the gay lobby insist that public gays should be atheist left wing. P.C. Guardianista multiculturalists. Well thank goodness for the likes of Alan Duncan, David Starkey etc

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Faceless_bureaucrat

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 10:09 AM

#2 - Well if you, and your type dislike her then she must be doing something right even though she is dyke.

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GarryOtton

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 09:34 AM

Davidson represents a particularly nasty socially conservative, religionist type of gay that fill the frocks of High Church clergy and assimilates into political parties that demand nobody rocks the boat. She supports taxpayers funding sectarian or so-called 'Faith' or 'Free' schools that teach people like her she is 'intrinsically disordered'. One step forward; two steps back.

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samcoldstream

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 08:45 AM

The battle now begins.............within the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party. Almost one third of registered members of the Scots Tory Party failed to vote in the leadership election? According to the Scots Tory constitution, voting isn't compulsory. ALL the Scots Tory candidates were rejected by one third of their registered members who took no part in the poll?

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