The Tories are back in Scotland. Craig Meighan explores why In 2016 the Scottish Conservatives bloomed like a flower, winning 32 seats in the Scottish Parliament, shoving Labour aside to become Scotland’s second largest party. To many, this was less a flower, but more of a weed or a thorn; an unprecedented locust spreading pervasively throughout a garden rarely seen so blue. In 2017 they continued to grow, returning 13 Scottish MPs in the UK general election in their best performance since 1983. The party previously had only one Scottish MP since 1997. But with the Scottish political tides turning the Tories in Scotland are in the best shape they’ve been in for decades. In the 2016 Scottish Parliament election the Tories accepted that the SNP would be the next party of government, so they ran on being a strong opposition and being the party that would prevent the SNP’s goal of a 2 nd independence referendum – what the Tories described as unwanted and unnecessary. With L
Scottish journalist and musician