Douglas Ross is the Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, the MP for Moray, and an MSP for the Highlands and Islands region.
There is something about the SNP leadership contest that resembles the point in a certain kind of blockbuster film – for some reason, Independence Day springs to mind – in which prominent national buildings get blown up in spectacular fashion.
In political terms, the SNP has been a fixture in the Scottish landscape for a decade and a half. For anyone attached to the Union, perhaps more of a concrete Brutalist eyesore than a cherished national monument, but solid and seemingly immovable all the same.
After last week it is a smouldering pile of rubble, with the area all around devastated and aflame.
It’s all imploding, sensationally, in the course of a leadership campaign sparked by Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation. Olympus has fallen (another of those landmark-smashing films) thanks to the vitriolic – or, if you prefer, candid – statements by the candidates.
It turns out that there is nothing on which they agree, other than the need for independence.
Certainly, they all stress it as their central aim and instinctively reach for it, as Nationalists always do, as the ultimate answer to any awkward question.
There was, initially, a bid by the party to exclude the media from their hustings. They must wish they had stuck to their guns because, when addressing the faithful, all the candidates come across as obsessed with, and occasionally unhinged on, the subject of breaking up the UK.
Which is where they differ sharply from the Scottish public, since not even SNP voters, or others who say they support independence, have it as one of their current priorities.
Like almost everyone else in the UK, and for that matter most other developed countries at the moment, Scots are interested in the cost of living and energy and food prices.
Thanks to the staggering mismanagement of the SNP Government, voters are also keenly interested in other bread-and-butter issues in terminal decline, like education, housing, transport and council services. And, above all, the NHS, at the point of collapse under Humza Yousaf, the continuity candidate favoured by the SNP hierarchy.
Possibly with some dim awareness of this, when it came to the first televised debate, the three candidates expanded their repertoire beyond competing suggestions for breaking up the UK, which had already veered beyond the implausible into the realms of the surreal. Before the debate, a giant “independence readiness thermometer” to be placed in a city centre – no, really – had been the big idea of Ash Regan, formerly the community safety minister.
What they decided to do was batter the living daylights out of each other on live television. That was entertaining viewing for the rest of us, but it has caused hand-wringing in SNP ranks.
One of Nicola Sturgeon’s closest allies, the Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison, described the exchanges as “a trashing of the collective record of the SNP Government”.
Nicola Sturgeon’s departure led to post-mortems and overviews from commentators and, at long last, many reached the conclusion that has long been apparent to the Scottish Conservatives. That her government has very few achievements, even on its own terms, and in almost every way, the people of Scotland are worse off than they were when she came to power.
Ms Robison’s chief anxiety, however, was that it was members of her own party that were disowning its record.
The end of the iron discipline which made any criticism of the leadership unthinkable has exposed the deep divisions within the party and kicked off its vicious civil war. But the candidates seem not to have considered that they were, of course, also torching their own reputations.
Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf are still serving members of Nicola Sturgeon’s cabinet and had hitherto never given any indication of dissent or dissatisfaction.
Ash Regan only resigned as a minister just before Christmas, and until now, had never said a critical word on anything except the GRR Bill.
They were complicit in bringing Scotland to what they now accept is a dismal point without a peep of complaint.
For these people to turn round and damn the First Minister’s record is obviously gratifying for Unionists, and anyone fed up with the Nationalists’ secrecy, incompetence, profligacy, neglect and skewed priorities. But it exposes their fundamental unfitness for office.
There must also now be questions about whether the new leader, whoever it is, will be able to resolve the deep divisions within the party or even, before that, gain acceptance from their parliamentary colleagues at Holyrood.
Recent polls have suggested a sharp fall in support both for the SNP and for a vote on breaking up the UK.
I suspect, as well as hope, that that trajectory will continue, and probably accelerate, no matter which of these tainted supporters of the old guard comes out on top.
That is an opportunity for the Scottish Conservatives, as not only the largest opposition party but the only one unequivocally backing the Union, and properly committed to holding the SNP to account.
Indeed, the exposure of the Nationalists’ failure in government and acceptance of the fact that there is no realistic prospect of a second referendum, makes me optimistic that the future is bright for the Conservatives in Scotland.
We are all aware that, thanks to a huge range of global factors, the circumstances may well be very challenging. The SNP, as the party of government here, has – as usual – attempted to foist the blame for their own shortcomings on to Westminster.
But the scrutiny and fallout from this leadership contest has put paid to that. The Scottish Conservatives have, over recent years, systematically built up the only credible programme for a Real Alternative.
Labour, which has voted with the SNP on a host of issues, including (in breach of their manifesto) raising income tax on middle-earners, has been feeble and devoid of ideas on the few issues where they are prepared to challenge the Nationalists. In political terms, their strength is concentrated in the Central Belt cities and, in most of those seats, they are miles behind the SNP.
But outside the urban centres, there is deep dissatisfaction with the SNP’s years of neglect and, as economic reality has caught up with them, the savage cuts they’ve imposed. And in those places, the Conservatives have a strong base, a convincing set of policies, and a receptive audience.
The destruction of the edifice built up by the SNP is almost complete and Scots are itching to rebuild a nation systematically run down and damaged during their tenure. Only the Scottish Conservatives are capable, and ready, for that task.
Douglas Ross is the Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, the MP for Moray, and an MSP for the Highlands and Islands region.
There is something about the SNP leadership contest that resembles the point in a certain kind of blockbuster film – for some reason, Independence Day springs to mind – in which prominent national buildings get blown up in spectacular fashion.
In political terms, the SNP has been a fixture in the Scottish landscape for a decade and a half. For anyone attached to the Union, perhaps more of a concrete Brutalist eyesore than a cherished national monument, but solid and seemingly immovable all the same.
After last week it is a smouldering pile of rubble, with the area all around devastated and aflame.
It’s all imploding, sensationally, in the course of a leadership campaign sparked by Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation. Olympus has fallen (another of those landmark-smashing films) thanks to the vitriolic – or, if you prefer, candid – statements by the candidates.
It turns out that there is nothing on which they agree, other than the need for independence.
Certainly, they all stress it as their central aim and instinctively reach for it, as Nationalists always do, as the ultimate answer to any awkward question.
There was, initially, a bid by the party to exclude the media from their hustings. They must wish they had stuck to their guns because, when addressing the faithful, all the candidates come across as obsessed with, and occasionally unhinged on, the subject of breaking up the UK.
Which is where they differ sharply from the Scottish public, since not even SNP voters, or others who say they support independence, have it as one of their current priorities.
Like almost everyone else in the UK, and for that matter most other developed countries at the moment, Scots are interested in the cost of living and energy and food prices.
Thanks to the staggering mismanagement of the SNP Government, voters are also keenly interested in other bread-and-butter issues in terminal decline, like education, housing, transport and council services. And, above all, the NHS, at the point of collapse under Humza Yousaf, the continuity candidate favoured by the SNP hierarchy.
Possibly with some dim awareness of this, when it came to the first televised debate, the three candidates expanded their repertoire beyond competing suggestions for breaking up the UK, which had already veered beyond the implausible into the realms of the surreal. Before the debate, a giant “independence readiness thermometer” to be placed in a city centre – no, really – had been the big idea of Ash Regan, formerly the community safety minister.
What they decided to do was batter the living daylights out of each other on live television. That was entertaining viewing for the rest of us, but it has caused hand-wringing in SNP ranks.
One of Nicola Sturgeon’s closest allies, the Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison, described the exchanges as “a trashing of the collective record of the SNP Government”.
Nicola Sturgeon’s departure led to post-mortems and overviews from commentators and, at long last, many reached the conclusion that has long been apparent to the Scottish Conservatives. That her government has very few achievements, even on its own terms, and in almost every way, the people of Scotland are worse off than they were when she came to power.
Ms Robison’s chief anxiety, however, was that it was members of her own party that were disowning its record.
The end of the iron discipline which made any criticism of the leadership unthinkable has exposed the deep divisions within the party and kicked off its vicious civil war. But the candidates seem not to have considered that they were, of course, also torching their own reputations.
Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf are still serving members of Nicola Sturgeon’s cabinet and had hitherto never given any indication of dissent or dissatisfaction.
Ash Regan only resigned as a minister just before Christmas, and until now, had never said a critical word on anything except the GRR Bill.
They were complicit in bringing Scotland to what they now accept is a dismal point without a peep of complaint.
For these people to turn round and damn the First Minister’s record is obviously gratifying for Unionists, and anyone fed up with the Nationalists’ secrecy, incompetence, profligacy, neglect and skewed priorities. But it exposes their fundamental unfitness for office.
There must also now be questions about whether the new leader, whoever it is, will be able to resolve the deep divisions within the party or even, before that, gain acceptance from their parliamentary colleagues at Holyrood.
Recent polls have suggested a sharp fall in support both for the SNP and for a vote on breaking up the UK.
I suspect, as well as hope, that that trajectory will continue, and probably accelerate, no matter which of these tainted supporters of the old guard comes out on top.
That is an opportunity for the Scottish Conservatives, as not only the largest opposition party but the only one unequivocally backing the Union, and properly committed to holding the SNP to account.
Indeed, the exposure of the Nationalists’ failure in government and acceptance of the fact that there is no realistic prospect of a second referendum, makes me optimistic that the future is bright for the Conservatives in Scotland.
We are all aware that, thanks to a huge range of global factors, the circumstances may well be very challenging. The SNP, as the party of government here, has – as usual – attempted to foist the blame for their own shortcomings on to Westminster.
But the scrutiny and fallout from this leadership contest has put paid to that. The Scottish Conservatives have, over recent years, systematically built up the only credible programme for a Real Alternative.
Labour, which has voted with the SNP on a host of issues, including (in breach of their manifesto) raising income tax on middle-earners, has been feeble and devoid of ideas on the few issues where they are prepared to challenge the Nationalists. In political terms, their strength is concentrated in the Central Belt cities and, in most of those seats, they are miles behind the SNP.
But outside the urban centres, there is deep dissatisfaction with the SNP’s years of neglect and, as economic reality has caught up with them, the savage cuts they’ve imposed. And in those places, the Conservatives have a strong base, a convincing set of policies, and a receptive audience.
The destruction of the edifice built up by the SNP is almost complete and Scots are itching to rebuild a nation systematically run down and damaged during their tenure. Only the Scottish Conservatives are capable, and ready, for that task.