May determined to tackle SNP head-on

SAFE to say council elections rarely elicit the same passion that general elections and the referendums we have lately had to endure generate.

But as we head for the town hall vote of May 4, a different mood seems to be abroad. There is new steel among Unionist voters determined not to give an inch to an SNP hellbent, as ever, on using every opportunity to claim electoral success as some sort of mandate for the break-up of Britain.

Theresa May has tapped into that with a direct message to the separatists, vowing that Conservative candidates will tackle, head-on, what she calls ‘tunnel-vision’ nationalism. What a refreshing change from the previous incumbent of 10 Downing Street, who seemed both befuddled and bemused by Scotland.

David Cameron had rings run round him by wily Alex Salmond, conceding both the question wording and the timing of the 2014 independence referendum.

Mrs May is made of sterner stuff. Her ‘not now’ response to Nicola Sturgeon’s petulant demand for another referendum, insisting the complexities of Brexit must be dealt with first, utterly wrong-footed the SNP.

The Nationalists were clearly hoping to milk faux grievance from an outright No that never came.

Yes, they managed to limp through a motion in Holyrood calling for the right to call a new referendum, but they had to rely on the oddball Greens – who ditched their own manifesto pledges – to achieve this questionable victory.

Meanwhile, the Conservative pitch to voters is about more than just party positioning and constitutional waffle.

The message is about the real world, one in which hard-pressed families find themselves with a distracted government presiding over a series of crises ranging from the economy to the NHS, to schools, transport and justice.

The Prime Minister’s verdict on the SNP and Labour is as accurate as it is lacerating.

‘They are exceptionally good at wasting your money, they excel at imposing new red tape, and they are world-class at hiking your taxes.’

It would be wrong to see the May elections as a proxy for anything else, but they are as good a guide to the political temperature in Scotland as we are likely to get for a long time.