Yesterday, as news sank in that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson had succeeded in openly screwing around with our hard-won democracy by suspending Parliament, and the backlash began, news filtered through that Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, was on the point of resigning.
This has now come to pass: Ms Davidson has personal reasons enough for going, having started a family recently. She has also been less than enamoured of Bozo The Clown’s acceptance of a possible no-deal Brexit, although the BBC reports that sources “insisted it was not a direct result of the announcement by Mr Johnson that he wants to suspend parliament in September - only a few weeks before the Brexit deadline of 31 October”.
However, that report also tells “She publicly backed opponents of Mr Johnson in the Conservative leadership contest, and has previously said she would not support a no-deal Brexit … Ms Davidson was also said to have been angered by Mr Johnson's decision to sack David Mundell - a close political ally of hers - as Scottish secretary and replace him with Alister Jack”. But her achievements have been notable.
As the Beeb report points out, “The 40-year-old was widely credited with turning around the fortunes of the Scottish Conservatives, with the party more than doubling its number of seats at Holyrood in the 2016 election - making it the second biggest party behind the SNP - and increasing its MPs from one to 13 in the 2017 general election”. Thirteen MPs - without which the Tories at Westminster would be in deep trouble.
So it might be expected that Tory-leaning pundits would acknowledge Ms Davidson’s achievements this morning, and Tim Montgomerie has done just that: “I don’t agree with [Ruth Davidson] on [Brexit] but admire her enormously. If this story is true her departure will be a serious blow to the party’s fortunes - and not just north of the border”. His stance, though, was not matched by Bozo The Clown’s most vociferous cheerleader.
The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog made clear their sneering contempt for both Ms Davidson, and indeed Scotland, yesterday afternoon when news of her possible resignation emerged. The headline ”Breaking: Regional Branch Tory Leader Considering Position” told you all you needed to know.
And then came the comment, dripping with condescension: “In news set to rock the exciting world of local politics, Tory Scottish leader Ruth Davidson is set to resign as per reports. Bound to be front page on the National”. Then came the obligatory dismissal of the Bozo connection: “Scottish Tory sources insist the decision was not taken today and therefore not influenced by Boris’s decision to prorogue parliament”.
The Great Guido, that most fervent and supposedly influential of Tory cheerleaders, has decided there is no problem in pissing on the electorate whose votes, right now, are propping up their hero, and rather more certainly than the DUP.
As the mask slips, we can see just what the Tories think of Scotland. It is a message that will not be lost on voters north of the border. Another fine mess, once again.
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4 comments:
Tory "thinking" doesn't extend beyond the M25 and adjacent Gnome Counties. As Davidson has "discovered". The sucker.
I know you're only making an argument re Conservative party opinions, but I wouldn't credit RD with the Scottish wins in the last election, which were, I think, more because of a Labour/SNP split of the anti-Tory vote, allowing more Tories in.
Davidson is/was as much a media construct as Farage is in England. Her 'success' consisted of briefly getting her party to 28% in the opinion polls.
Yes, her party is the second largest in Holyrood, but still a very distant second.
Yes, her party gained 12 seats in the 2017 election, but that was largely down to many who had voted SNP in 2015 staying at home and by tactical voting by the more hard-line Labour & LibDem unionists. In any case, her influence over those 12 was mimimal, as demonstrated by so many of them being in favour not only of a Brexit strongly rejected by the people of Scotland, but of the hardest possible crash-out, which she herself did not support.
She was - as befits a former news broadcaster - a media-friendly figure (much like Farrago), and much of her supposed success has been as a result of constant promotion by the unionist press and almost invariably softball interviewing by the broadcasters. But she never provided much more than a thin liberal veneer on a party which is, at root, the same old xenophobic, arrogant and sectarian mob as it has been since time was.
She has jumped now because she has seen what is likely to happen to her party in any imminent election, i.e. a near or total wipeout. Her presence at the top of her party's Scotland branch would have made little or no difference to that outcome.
Labour friends who moved upto Perth last year tell an interesting tale of the Scottish Tories, they largely won seats in 2017, by making themselves all very cozy and cuddly and separating themselves completely from their English counterparts.
A lot of Scots got fed up with Nicola banging on about IndyRef2, whilst their public services deteriorated.
RD, did t look or sound like ur classic Tory woman, which kinda helped the Nasty Scottish Toxic Party appear all cozy. However Ruth did support the austerity agenda which pushed many Scots into poverty.
Bozza the Clown will sorely miss those 13 Tory MPs.
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