The Irn Lady pulled through – and the Scottish Conservatives survived. Had Murdo
Fraser won, he would have renamed the party and left David Cameron running an England-only Conservative party. Yes, I can also imagine how much that would have upset them. But the day has been
saved.
The kickboxing Ruth Davidson, committed to reviving rather than abandoning the brand, has triumphed. She already been hailed as the first openly Glaswegian leader of the party, and her supporters argued that Murdo lacked her charisma which is why his proposition was more radical.
I haven’t met either, and can’t comment. Except to say that Scotland remains a very large buffer zone between Cameron and proper control of No10. He actually won a majority of English seats last year and Michael Howard won the most English votes in 2005. Cameron can be forgiven for being exasperated with the Scots, but he needs them – under the current system – to actually win next time.

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