Is Ruth Davidson really the stuff of Tory dreams?

“The greatest politician in the world”, a friend quipped recently, “is the Westminster projection of Ruth Davidson”. I do not think this was meant altogether unkindly. It was, in part, a reflection of the age-old truth that what you cannot have so often seems more attractive than what you can.

Davidson is a formidable communicator; interested in ideas but blessed with the common touch. She has a no-nonsenseness about her that contrasts favourably with the grey men and women occupying chairs around the cabinet table in Downing Street. Better still, she is neither tarnished by nor responsible for Brexit. That alone is enough to give her a freshness that seems especially energising these days. One much-respected political editor in London describes her as the “most naturally talented” politician in these islands. Maybe so. But Davidson is also sufficiently self-aware to know that her successes increasing Tory representation at both Holyrood and Westminster are not all her own work.