If Murdo Fraser can boast that a bare majority of his colleagues are backing his leadership campaign, Ruth Davidson enjoys the support of many of the party grandees. Indeed with the likes of Michael Ancram and Lords Forsyth and Sanderson in her corner it’s tempting to suggest her campaign amounts to Yesterday’s Men for Tomorrow’s Woman.
The best thing Ruth – whom I’ve known for many years – has done in this campaign is pledge to support cutting income tax. Not because there’s any prospect the Tories will be able to deliver this any time soon but because it sends an overdue signal about what the party believes in. It offers a contrast with the other parties that, however fledgling, has the chance of taking flight one day. There needs to be much more of this.
And rather less, frankly, of the stuff she came out with today. The choice, she says, is between “self-destruction” and some sunny future that can be willed into being by a younger, more media-savvy, fesity leader. Well, maybe. But is the quality of the party leader the principle issue or explanation for Tory failures in Scotland? This seems, to put it gently, improbable. According to Ruth, however:
‘As the campaign moves into this crucial stage, I would respectfully ask all party members to think very carefully about what is at stake,’ said Davidson.
‘Do you want to see the party you love and have worked so hard for disbanded and cast aside, or do you share my belief that with the right kind of change – the generational change that only I can bring – we can renew and reinvigorate and be a winning force again in Scottish politics and Scottish life?
‘I believe I can provide the new face and the new voice that the party needs to get us back to winning ways, not just for ourselves but for Scotland too.
‘We need that strong voice and that strong personality for what is the real battle – the fight to stop Alex Salmond and his separatists from destroying the Union.
‘We can’t do that if we destroy ourselves first, but we can if we stick together, grow stronger and make our voice heard loudly.’
First: Murdo Fraser is only 43. He may have been around a while but he’s not an oldie. indeed, he’s only 11 years older than Davidson herself. If your rival is young enough to be your brother you’re probably not fighting an inter-generational battle.
Secondly, the idea that the Tories are struggling because no-one hears their voice – but that they will if only the Tories shout lmore loudly – is a desperately shallow analysis of the party’s Caledonian woes. Davidson is better than this so she should be better than this too.
Thirdly, the real battle is actually for the revival of right-of-centre politics in Scotland. “Stopping” Alex Salmond may be part of that process but the Tories would do better if they weren’t considered a single-issue party. I’m not sure it’s entirely coincidental that the less the SNP talked about independence all the time the better they fared. That doesn’t mean the Tories would revive if they stopped boring on about the Union all the time; merely that their chances of revival are not improved by being perceived, fairly or not, as a single-issue party.
Davidson, in fact, is better when she does talk about policy. She should do more of that, otherwise her campaign offers not much more than more of the same only more so and louder this time. That can’t and won’t be enough.
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