Tom Peterkin: Scottish Conservative slide not for want of hard graft

For the Scottish Conservatives last week’s local election results had the morale-sapping effect of acting as yet another example of the steady erosion of Conservative support north of the Border.

It was a result that inevitably led to more hand-wringing in the Tory ranks as the party contemplates its first election with Ruth Davidson in charge. As Andrew Hardie, the editor of the blog Tory Hoose, put it in his online column: “Last week the Scottish Conservatives suffered their biggest electoral set back in local government since 1995”.

Summarising the election, Hardie lamented that the Conservatives had lost 20 per cent of their councillors, had seen their vote fall to 13.31 per cent and local representation cut dramatically or even wiped out in some areas. So who, or what, is to blame? An unpopular coalition, Davidson herself, or an unpopular brand were possible answers suggested by Hardie who, shied away from coming to a conclusion on this key question. Although the bare figures tell us that Davidson did not have the most auspicious debut at the polls, no-one can fault her effort. There were some Tory murmurings when she tried to talk up “gains” made by the Tories – an approach which some MSPs felt was hopelessly unrealistic.

There has also been the odd Tory eyebrow raised by her attack on her party’s Lib Dem coalition partners – the Lib Dems who she described as an “unviable” party. But by all accounts, she worked exceptionally hard during the campaign, toil that was recognised and appreciated by her lieutenants.

But as suggested by her former rival for the Conservative leadership Murdo Fraser, hard work alone is not enough. Also writing on the Tory Hoose blog, Fraser had a go at those who have suggested that a bit more industry is what is required to turn the Scottish Conservatives around. Fraser did not name those who take the view that a better work ethic is required. But his choice of words would suggest that he had the former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth, rather than Davidson, in mind when he wrote: “I hope the results last Thursday will finally silence the ‘we have to work harder’ brigade whose mantra is so insulting to so many energetic councillors and candidates up and down the land.”

Reading between the lines, Fraser was advocating a more radical approach – something that he tried and failed to deliver when he stood for the leadership on a ticket to replace the current party with a new centre right political force. The success of the financier Peter De Vink – formerly a long-standing Tory – in getting elected in Midlothian as an independent is also food for thought. His election would suggest that it was banner rather than the policies that are proving a barrier to success. So Fraser may have lost the battle for the Scottish Tory leadership, but the party’s poor performance suggests that there is still a war to be fought and won over its future.