Leader: Forsyth makes a strong case for the opposition

Always one for colourful language, Scotland’s last Tory Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth, has attacked Scottish leadership candidate Murdo Fraser’s idea of forming a new right-of-centre party north of the Border, using a comparison with the Titanic.

Mr Fraser does not want the party to have a new captain, but a new ship, according to Lord Forsyth, who adds that there was nothing wrong with the Titanic other than the fact it was “steered at speed into an iceberg”.

Leaving aside the historical debate over the engineering of the liner in question, Lord Forsyth’s choice of analogy will leave many in his party, and quite a few outside it, shaking their heads in disbelief. Can he really be serious?

For did not the Tory party when he was in charge lose every Westminster seat it had in Scotland? And was it not saved from oblivion by the proportionally-elected parliament Lord Forsyth so vehemently opposed?

The problem for the Scottish Tories has been that, since 1997, their ship has been steered into an electoral iceberg every time Scotland has gone to the polls, with consequences analogous to the fate of the Titanic.

If it is to avoid yet another iceberg, there is a very strong argument for both a new ship and a new skipper at the helm.