Chris

Ummm .... no, they won’t. The Tories’ comeback in Scotland occurred much earlier than most people in Englandshire realise. Holyrood’s more-or-less proportional representation voting system has ensured they have always been a significant presence and at present they are the official opposition. There are 31 Tories in Holyrood out of 129 MSPs in total. Many of them are young and ambitious and, unlike Ruth Davidson, possibly not with a young baby in the house and grateful for the opportunity to lay some responsibilities down. In fact, on that point, she has been off on maternity leave for much of the year and in the interim Jackson Carlaw has been a very capable stand-in. He would be an able leader, as would be the shadow finance secretary, Murdo Fraser.

I wish her no ill will, incidentally; she has been great for the Tories in Scotland and great for Scotland itself, properly holding Sturgeon to account. In fact as the Scottish Tories’ best hope right now is to keep their distance from BoJo, she is doing yet another service by resigning in this way.