Scottish Conservative leadership election result:
Russell Findlay 2565
Murdo Fraser 1187
Meghan Gallacher 403
Possibly the SNP and Labour have both dodged a bullet with Gallacher's failure. It's hard to know for sure, because the Tories might have found that the downsides of having her as leader would have outweighed the upsides, but the one thing that might just have caused working class voters in west-central Scotland to take another look at the Tories would have been a Tory leader who speaks just like them.
Someone on the previous thread suggested it was a shame independence supporters didn't infiltrate the Tories and swing the contest for Murdo Fraser. But that might be a case of 'careful what you wish for', because an independent centre-right party free of Tory branding, portraying itself as patriotically-Scottish-but-oh-isn't-independence-such-a-bore might actually have done quite well. Look at what happened with the CAQ in Quebec.
No, we may be just as well having Russell Findlay, who will change nothing and doesn't strike me as Mr Charisma. He's a more credible figure than Douglas Ross, but then so are most hamsters. And assuming the Tories are mostly in the market for committed unionist voters, a slightly more competent leader may even do us a favour by drawing support away from Labour.
It was Ruth Davidson who originally pushed Douglas Ross as some sort of Messiah, wasn't it? That says a lot about her own much-vaunted political judgement.
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Ross should never have worn shorts in public, and he should have rode a British Army tank to Holyrood. That’s the macho image Tories need.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, the more I think about it, the more clearly Ruth Davidson was their Nicola Sturgeon.
Attention junkie.
DeleteWildly overestimated.
Ultimately ineffective.
Chose a shite successor.
Checks out.
Baroness Colonel Davidson may have been useless and have achieved fewer votes for her blue Tory party than they gained during the Thatcher times, but look where her attention-seeking guffawing has got her. £300 a day attendance allowance, expenses and a probable TV Celeb career.
DeleteWhen money is your only motivation, Rape-Clause-Ruth is a huge success.
The issue is that Findlay IS meant to fail. The beneficary of that is supposed to be Scottish Labour, since even the most ardent unionists would concede that the Tories cannot possibly overtake the SNP and provide a First Minister.
ReplyDeleteThe independence movement has long benefited from unionist voters being evenly split between Tories and Labour. A woeful performance from Findlay leads to them consolidating around Labour - and this gives Labour a serious buff on the constituency ballots.
The way Labour’s flailing around helplessly right now, you’d think they never got the memo.
DeleteCongratulations to Russell - he seems a decent sort.
ReplyDeleteAlready tarred with the "decent" brush like Major, Miliband, Swinney. Dammit
DeleteThere's no such thing as a "decent" Tory. They are lowlife shitbags.
DeleteI’d describe some SNPs in a similar way.
DeleteWould you really. That's a fascinating insight.
DeleteI actually like the idea of a Scottish conservatives, no nonsense, common sense approach. We need a bit of that at times.
ReplyDeleteThey do face stiff competition from Reform.
DeleteThey face stiff competition from the millionaires, Sirs and Ladies of the Labour Party.
DeleteWhat does that even mean? It’s meaningless word salad. He is a Tory. He is an arsehole. It really is that simple.
DeleteI think the best for the future of the Conservative party in Scotland would have been Murdo Fraser. Whereas Russell Findlay will happily drive the bus with the wheels going round and round while they fall off.
ReplyDeleteFor the future of Scotland it's not good news as Indy Scotland WILL need a proper Conservative party, not just a Unionist succubus. Or even an incubus!
Indy would trigger the creation of such a party, I am sure. It’s a massive reset. No democracy is without its petty right wing and nor should Scotland be.
DeleteNot relevant as the chances of independence in the next hundred years is remote at best.
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DeleteCould the prescient British lady at 8.01 plwase give me the lotto numbers for Saturday? Thanks 😊.
DeleteOn the whole I thought all three candidates would have been good in their different ways.
ReplyDeleteMurdo is quite a thoughtful person and he could definitely have done the job well.
Meghan Gallacher comes across very well and I am sure she will play a huge role in future years. Finally, Russell seems like a sensible sort.
DeleteThe Conservatives now have an oppositional role which I am sure Russell will relish.
Agreed she comes across well.
DeleteIt would have been lovely for Orange Lodge Fraser to have been elected as anything during his long career.
DeleteSeems to me we have AI bots on the wind up here.
ReplyDeleteAI can only copy what already exists. These Tory drones are made of meat, my friend.
DeleteIs there a common sense, Indy curious party? I suppose that should be Alba.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how little support Alba has while reform has much more in about the same timespan.
DeleteMust be nice to have the Tory press on side and be the Beeb’s favourite commentator. Easy mode, anyone?
DeleteIn terms of political judgement then, how would you rate your choosing to join Alba?
ReplyDeleteThey were a hopeful bunch once upon a time. The launch was good, the timing perfect, and then, well, yeah…
DeleteAlthough that's obviously not a kindly-meant question, in a way it's a fair one, because anyone who joins a political party full of optimism and then just three years later finds themselves facing potential expulsion for the most fatuous of reasons is bound to reflect on the wisdom of the original decision. What I would say is that I did not anticipate in 2021 how authoritarian the Alba leadership would prove to be, so in that sense I did judge the situation incorrectly. However, I'm not sure there were any real clues that I could reasonably have picked up on, because Alex Salmond's track record in the SNP did not actually point to any of this. He's reputed to have hardly ever expelled anyone from the SNP, partly because of his own bruising experience of being expelled in 1982. The Alba-era Mr Salmond seems to be very different from the one we used to know.
DeleteJames: I suggest that you indeed see out your defence from the false allegations of what sounds liable to be an ALBA kangaroo court, and then rejoin the SNP for whom future opportunities in a few years at most under a Flynn/Forbes leadership are very real.
DeleteWhat are the views of the ex MP’s? Lost battle?
ReplyDeleteALBA will lose a chunk of monies with the loss of the MP’s at Westminster and they have 7000 members which I would assume will dwindle even more. There is a financial reality to face too over and above the more immediate one as to the leadership approach to different views.
DeleteNevermind Russel Findlay, what about Denise Findlay.
ReplyDeleteMade me look. Her paintings are quite nice, actually, though a bit on-the-nose to count as contemporary art. Needs to chuck in some severed shark or the like.
DeleteOr Doctor Findlay?
ReplyDeleteScotland Speaks with Alex Salmond didn't seem to drop at 10am today.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHave to say IFS, you’re being harsh on John Swinney.
DeletePersonally I’ve been impressed with him as FM. I don’t think anybody could have reasonably asked for more from his time in office so far.
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DeleteTalking drivel appears to be your main purpose in life. Your aligned with who again? Communist party of Grand Bretagne?
DeleteIdiot for Scotland has been a bit quieter of late. Big fan of Alex Salmond, so you can gauge his judgement from that. And one of the nutters who one minute had NS in complete control of the police and the entire prosecution system, and the next minute called her out as a fraud and a liar who should be pursued by , yes you’ve guessed it, the police and prosecution system she allegedly controlled. He is comedy gold for a couple of minutes and then needs put out if his misery.
DeleteAnon at 4.53pm - Sturgeon may be a fraud and a liar. You are just a plain lying troll and a coward. A cowardly pony.
DeleteHe's only been an MSP for 3y and now he's leader? That surprises me as in comparison to MF and MG he's vastly inexperienced in politics. I'm curious about who makes up the 6000 or so members of the Scottish Tories. As I see it there are three constituencies in it:
ReplyDeleteOld landed Tories
Orange Lodge members and ex-NI loyalists (big in Lanarkshire & Ayrshire)
English members who live in Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives are quite keen on Russell overall. He seems to be quite promising.
DeleteThe Scottish conservatives seem quite keen on canned tuna overall. It seems to be quite promising.
DeleteI thought Russell came over well and ran a well-run campaign.
DeletePersonally I couldn’t give a flying ****
Delete