Scots liked Tories more last century
BRASS neck does not come into it.
You cannot turn the telly on these days without seeing a straight-faced faced Ruth Davidson claiming to speak for the majority of Scots.
Davidson has less support in Scotland than Margaret Thatcher.
The Conservatives in Scotland polled 31 per cent in 1979, 28 per cent in 1983 and 24 per cent in 1987.
Ruth Davidson mustered 22 per cent last year. Less popular than Thatcher. For the last 30 years the Tories have had either one MP or no MPs in Scotland. It doesn’t get much worse.
So, put another way, four out of five voters in the Scottish Parliament elections last year rejected Ruth Davidson and her Tories.
It was a pitiful performance, camouflaged only by the even worse state of Scottish Labour who polled below the Tories.
But back to the brass neck. What kind of selfregard, bordering on delusion, does one need to possess to stand up and claim to speak for Scotland with such a non-existent mandate?
That was what Davidson and David Mundell did when they held a press conference backing Theresa May’s bullying of Scotland and dismissal of the democratic right of its people to choose their own futures.
The Tories displaced Labour as the official opposition and Davidson is chuffed about that.
But let’s keep things in perspective. The SNP polled more votes than Labour and Tory combined last May.
This is reflected in the composition of the Scottish Parliament where the two pro-independence parties, the SNP and the Greens, together command a majority in the Scottish parliament.
That is the reason parliament will today vote in favour of seeking a second referendum.
Stark facts fail to diminish Tory self-entitlement.
Davidson, as the UK Tories’ voice in Scotland, believes she has the right to impose a hard Brexit on Scotland which 62 per cent voted against.
Someone should tell her that no amount of airtime and newsprint can make up for the Tories’ poor standing with voters in Scotland.
A party rejected by four out of five Scots cannot ever claim to speak for the country.