Could the Conservatives take Labour’s place as Scotland’s second party?

Last month I wrote that everyone loves Ruth Davidson but no-one will vote for her. Now a new YouGov poll reports that the Tories are ahead, if only just, of Labour in the race to lose the forthcoming Holyrood election least badly. Twenty percent of Scots say they intend to vote for Davidson’s Scottish Conservatives in May and only 19 percent are prepared to back Kezia Dugdale’s Labour party.

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A lesser man than I might think this awkward.

Granted, even when doubting the veracity of the much-anticipated, rarely-actually-seen Scottish Tory revival I allowed myself some room for wriggling. It could happen, I noted and perhaps it even should happen since the political conditions now prevailing in Scotland have not been so friendly to Tory hopes in at least a generation. So it is not impossible that the Tories could come second in May.

Not impossible but still, I think, unlikely. Davidson has made it clear that she expects the party to do better than it has ever previously done at a Scottish parliamentary election.