For people who profess to be utterly uninterested in the fortunes of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, SNP parliamentarians and the usual ragbag collection of independence supporters seem terribly keen to demonstrate that the so-called Tory revival witnessed on Thursday is no such thing.
Hence this entertaining poster that’s been doing the rounds on social media today. And it is true what it says: Margaret Thatcher was much more popular in Scotland than popular imagination – especially in Scotland – cares to remember. She and her party were certainly always more popular than the Scottish National Party.
Why, even after eight years of her government – after Linwood, after Gartcosh, after Singer in Clydebank, after the miners’ strike – almost a quarter of those Scots who chose to vote in 1987 supported the Iron Lady and her party. True, the Scottish Tories lost half their seats that year but their result, as measured in terms of a share of the vote, was no different to what it had been in the second 1974 general election.
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