Do the Scottish Conservatives have any reason to exist?
The questions arising at the Scottish Conservative conference this weekend will be many and varied. Here is one more: do they have any future at all?
Is it possible they could slide into complete irrelevance? Is it possible they could be supplanted? Perhaps by Nigel Farage and his seemingly resurgent Reform UK?
Before dismissing this prospect out of hand, consider the point that political parties are manufactured, not innate. They are coalitions of the more or less willing, designed to provide a vaguely coherent offer to the electorate in order to secure power and effect change.
Consequently, they have no guaranteed right to exist. Anyone remember the squadrone volante? In the old, pre-Union Scots Parliament, they steered a cautious middle way between the Court and Country parties, before eventually sinking into oblivion.
OK, so that is an obscure recollection. Consider this instead. In the 19th century, the Liberals were utterly dominant in Scottish politics. Their role was largely usurped by the Labour Party. The Tories battled on. They secured, in 1955, the only popular majority ever achieved by any party in Scotland since universal suffrage.
But that was a Unionist vote. As times changed, and the SNP rose, the Tories struggled again, eventually losing every Scottish Westminster seat in 1997.
They were only rescued as a party by the advent of devolution and by proportional representation. Two developments they had steadfastly opposed.
And more recently? They flourished to a degree under Ruth Davidson’s leadership. She contrived to corral pro-Union votes to her side by depicting her party as the most reliable bulwark for........
© Herald Scotland
