Tories beat the Nats in their own back yard
How the most unconventional Conservative fortunes with a compassion, hard graft... of politicians resurrected common-touch mix of decency, and a wicked sense of humour
RUTH Davidson yesterday insisted the Scottish Tories are the only party that can beat the SNP after a double election victory in Alex Salmond’s back yard.
The Conservatives won two council byelections in the Nationalists’ North-East heartlands. The Tories said the election had been dominated by opposition to the SNP’s push for a second independence referendum and its plan to introduce council tax rises.
Miss Davidson claimed that the two byelection victories, in Inverurie and Banff, prove her party has become the only real challenger to the SNP.
She said: ‘This double win proves once again that the Scottish Conservatives are the party which can take on and beat the SNP, including in Alex Salmond’s back yard.
‘It’s also vindication for our local campaign against the SNP’s unfair council tax plans, which would strip millions of pounds from the North-East.
‘The message is clear: the SNP must start listening to the people of Scotland who want them to focus on the day job of governing – not obsess over a second referendum on independence.’
The two by-election victories came in wards in Aberdeenshire Council, which is run by an SNP-led alliance. The Tories could now even seek to overthrow the council administration.
Tory candidate Iain Taylor won the Banff and District ward in a by-election that was called following the death of Nationalist councillor Ian Gray.
Colin Clark won Inverurie in a byelection prompted by the resignation of independent councillor Martin KittsHayes, who had previously been elected as a Liberal Democrat.
FIVE years ago – and by a squeak – Ruth Davidson won the Scottish Conservative leadership, narrowly beating Murdo Fraser and so succeeding the popular, if ineffectual, Annabel Goldie. There was incredulity: Miss Davidson had been an MSP for only a matter of months and had spent no earlier apprenticeship in public service or local government. There was mirth. ‘The Widow Twankey makes way for the Principal Boy,’ tweeted one wag. And, among the most traditional, entire horror.
A few weeks ago, introducing the Prime Minister herself to the massed Conservative faithful, Miss Davidson warmly recalled that long-ago autumn – daunting as it must have been at the time.
‘Five years ago I came to this conference, seeking to win the leadership of our party in Scotland. We’d just had our worst ever Scottish election result on the back of two decades of decline. As career moves went, the omens didn’t look exactly ideal.
‘We were being kicked around by our opponents. And the media was calling us a corpse that wouldn’t twitch. And that was on a good day. But, conference, you always kept the faith. When I argued we could win again as Conservatives, you granted me the privilege of allowing me to lead.
‘We weren’t being credited with much in the way of prospects but we had our values, we had heart and we had belief. And, five years on, I’m here to tell you the good news – the Scottish Conservatives are back.’
And indeed they are – and with a force no one in 2011 would have dared predict. In the Holyrood election in May, the Scottish Tories pipped Labour to second place, emerging (to widespread astonishment) as the chief party of opposition.
They snatched seven constituency seats – as many as Labour and the Liberal Democrats put together – and beat Labour in the regional list vote. Miss Davidson herself stormed home to win the Edinburgh Central division: five years earlier, with only 15 per cent of the vote, the Tory candidate had limped in fourth.
Nor has that new support since deserted the Scottish Tories. Surveys show them consistently polling 5 per cent or 6 per cent ahead of Scottish Labour. They are set to make significant advances in Scotland’s local council elections next spring and, should a general election be called, might well take some Nationalist scalps.
Such momentum – and her own personal impact – has cemented Ruth Davidson herself as a Tory player respected the length of the United Kingdom.
YoU could argue, of course, that she has been lucky in her opponents. In Scotland, Labour and the Liberal Democrats are shaken and cash-strapped outfits, burdened by charisma-free leaders and contending for little more than survival.
And Nicola Sturgeon – in a decision reflecting her own weakness before less herbivorous elements of the SNP membership – refused, in her Holyrood manifesto, flatly to rule out another independence referendum in the new Scottish parliament term.
It was a grave strategic error upon which Miss Davidson fell with relish. No one, throughout these campaigning weeks, talked up a possible referendum as much as the exuberant Scottish Tory leader herself; worked harder to become the face of an enduring Union. Leaflets, posters, backdrops were all emblazoned with Ruth Davidson; the words ‘Scottish Conservative’ scarcely uttered.
Through those barnstorming days of spring, as one observer joked, she offered ‘the Ruth, the whole Ruth and nothing but the Ruth’. She blazed through event upon function upon debate like a force of nature. No photo opportunity was too ridiculous; yet – even astride a mildly startled buffalo or atop a tank – she never herself looked ridiculous.
Miss Davidson has, somehow, quite detoxified the Scottish Tory brand. ‘She kept being approached by people during the campaign in April,’ one high in her councils recalls, ‘who were telling her, “I’m voting for you, hen…”
‘Quite simply, they wanted someone who looked like they could stick it to the SNP and oppose independence – and she fitted the bill. That far outweighed any discomfort they had in putting a cross next to the Tory box. A Rubicon has been crossed, I think, where it is now socially acceptable to say you voted Scottish Conservative.’
Miss Davidson has not the typical attributes of a successful public woman. She is short, plump and not conventionally pretty (though she has the most beautiful eyes). She almost invariably wears trousers and bright, very tailored jackets.
Yet she has panache, even style. Her delicious voice is at once warm and authoritative. When occasion calls for it, she does anger well. She is at once very ordinary – a lower middleclass background; the product of a comprehensive school – and distinctly colourful: the ‘kickboxing ex-Army lesbian’, as profiles usually mention at an early point.
Her sexuality is, really, the least interesting thing about Miss Davidson. A central strength is her own extraordinary interest in people. She genuinely believes she can learn something of value from practically everyone she meets.
When you encounter Miss Davidson, you rapidly find that you do most of the talking as these great eyes regard you keenly; as she nods, occasionally tilts her head. Afterwards, you can scarcely remember anything she said – but feel, and for an age afterwards, you yourself must be one of the cleverest and most engaging people on the planet.
Whenever Ruth Davidson works a room, she leaves it full of folk in melting little puddles of happiness. But there is more to her than mere charm.
She has – most unusually in a career politician – the rare ability to laugh at herself. Accepting the Scottish Politician of the Year award last week, she spoke with wit as well as grace. ‘What can I say? It’s been an extraordinary year for me personally. First, the election result in May. Second, my wonderful girlfriend agreed to be my wife. Third, I came second in a Kim Jong-un lookalike competition.
‘Almost five years ago today I was elected leader of the Scottish Conservative Party. I was told I would endeavour to resuscitate a corpse, but I always believed there was a way back for centre-Right politics in Scotland. I am so unbelievably proud of the team I lead…’
And that is another key Davidson strength, reflecting – perhaps – her past service in the Territorial Army. ‘She places a high premium on being a team player and on loyalty,’ a colleague observes.
‘The angriest I’ve ever seen her was when one of our team publicly slagged off Labour during the Indyref campaign and allowed the impression of a split to emerge. She knew that Labour voters were crucial to winning the vote and she was furious that one of our own had put party tribalism before the country.
‘The same instinct emerged during the European referendum, when she told osborne
and Cameron that she’d happily “strap on a suicide-vest” in order to try to take out Boris in the debates…’
And the extraordinary thing is how she has emerged as so formidable a political talent after so brief a political apprenticeship – and, indeed, that her political career took off at all.
For, had not Malcolm Macaskill – on March 25, 2011 and for personal reasons – not withdrawn as the top Tory candidate on the Glasgow regional list (Miss Davidson was second) she would not have become an MSP.
And had not Murdo Fraser, bidding for the vacant Scottish Conservative leadership, so unwisely made a rather incendiary announcement of his candidacy on the one weekend of the year David Cameron was the Queen’s guest at Balmoral (and badly embarrassed him), the Prime Minister, and the Tory machine generally, would never have toiled as they did to ensure a Fraser defeat.
Miss Davidson thereafter, understandably, showed Cameron a loyalty he did not always repay. On one occasion, for instance, he U-turned on the issue of minimum pricing for alcohol (which she and her Scottish colleagues fiercely opposed) without bothering to consult her. And his precipitate ‘English votes for English laws’ remarks after the independence referendum robbed her and the rest of Better Together that weekend, at least, simply to savour their victory.
But that campaign cemented her command after an uncertain start as leader. She seriously impressed colleagues, and the public, emerging as a woman of fierce self-belief, strong convictions and unflappable character.
PErhAPS most evident in her holyrood campaign, last spring, was its sheer courage. Miss Davidson made no pretence – on this occasion – that the Scottish Tories were bidding for government. Instead, they would stand up for the Union, clip SNP wings, hold them to account, drag them off incessant constitutional navelgazing and force them to deal with the issues that really matter to ordinary Scots.
Boldly, she foregrounded herself in the campaign – in the knowledge there would be little mercy if it ended in humiliation. She refused to let Cameron, Osborne or anyone else come north to patronise her and annoy Scottish voters; she ducked no photo opportunity and side-stepped no debate.
As a result, ruth Davidson did not just increase Scottish Conservative ranks at holyrood, she doubled them. She has not just strengthened the Tory brand, she has rehabilitated it, in its greatest electoral success since 1992 and its first big recovery since 1979 – and, personally, won a seat last seized for her party in 1983.
What was more, this was a new Tory force, not a few old nags having been prevailed upon to retire. From Douglas ross in the highlands and Islands to Annie Wells in Glasgow, this is fresh and vibrant talent, ordinary Scots of vim and brio and diverse, rich life experience, not prepared to bow the knee before the tired verities of the big state and wasteful, managerial social democracy.
Mr ross has run a dairy farm and referees semi-professional football most weekends. Miss Wells’s mother was Speaker Michael Martin’s cleaner. Diverse, grounded and rather interesting, none of the 31strong group resembles the supercilious, entitlement-reeking Tories of caricature. Ironically, two new Edinburgh MSPs of the averred left – labour’s Daniel Johnson and Alec Cole-hamilton of the liberal Democrats – seem much more in that smug mould; and the odd Nationalist besides.
Much of Miss Davidson’s advancing popularity is down to her ebullience, her sheer positivity. Better Together fought in 2014 with ‘a 70/30 split in terms of negative/positive emphasis’, recalls one aide.
‘We urged ruth to be 70/30 the other way, because she was so good at highlighting the positives of the Union. It was this passion, I think, that saw her emerge from the campaign with so many plaudits.’
But, shrewdly, she campaigned then and since as a doughtily Scottish personality; no mere cog in the British Conservative machine.
During last year’s general election, she made a bet with staff that she would not once use that tedious Cameroon phrase, ‘long-term economic plan’. (She won). ‘In that sense,’ a friend says, ‘she sits perfectly in the Scottish tradition of “nationalist Unionism” – very proudly British but bloody-mindedly Scottish.
‘It’s an attitude which says to political Nationalists – don’t you dare take my country away from me; and says, equally vehemently, to the English: don’t you dare assume to have control over Scotland.’
Scottish politics seem to be shifting back to two parties of the centre-left and the centreright, defined by their stance on the Union as older rivals fade into irrelevance.
Still young, the wind at her back, her leadership unassailable, ruth Davidson looks across the aisle to a tired SNP administration, its gagged and stifled internal debate, the perils before it of Brexit and, above, the uncertain touch of an uneasy and timid First Minister.
There is no reason, Miss Davidson knows, why she could not in 2021 bid for government: she has, after all, more MSPs now than the SNP could boast a decade ago – and may yet prove to be on the right side of history.