kieran andrews political editor

The campaign in Scotland started off so positively for the Conservatives.

Rising in the polls, momentum building on the back of last year’s Holyrood jump into second place, through to a council election result that cemented the idea it was finally OK to vote for Ruth Davidson’s party after almost 20 years of toxicity in Scotland.

That led to expectation management issues, with predictions of constituency victories in the upcoming general election spiralling to levels the Scottish Tory boss is now obviously slightly uncomfortable with.

She is smart enough not to put numbers on things, but her deputy, the usually savvy Jackson Carlaw, was prepared to predict up to a dozen could switch from yellow to blue.

A week today we will be waking up – well, I’ll be getting ready for a couple of hours kip after a night crunching numbers – to the results and we will know whether that confidence was well placed.

One thing is for sure, though, Theresa May is not helping her colleagues north of the border.

A lacklustre campaign that has performed more U-turns than a getaway driver whose Sat Nav stopped working, driving a car as strong and stable as an old Lada, has led to a collapse in the polls UK-wide, albeit one that is still likely to lead to a Conservative majority.

Meanwhile, controversial policies like the dementia tax and so-called rape clause – a knock-on effect of the two-child benefits cap – have made it increasingly difficult for some traditional Labour voters who were thinking of being tactical Tories for constitutional purposes.

Things are not as shored up as they once might have been, although activists give mixed messages as to how much of a problem the Prime Minister currently is on the doors.

So, it is far from a disaster for Conservative canvassers and the party will increase both its number of seats and its vote share next week.

Not for the first time, however, the Scottish leadership will be cursing their association with the UK party.