Gerald Warner: Exit candidate gets my vote to end Scottish Tory misery

The marathon contest has been viewed by the nation with passionate indifference. There is a school of thought that regards commenting on the affairs of the Scottish Tories as an intrusion into private grief that is no longer acceptable in the current climate of more rigorous standards of self-restraint among the press. It may also contravene increasingly restrictive laws against blood sports. Yet so rare is any confirmed sighting of these timid woodland creatures that any opportunity to record their esoteric rituals is of such anthropological interest it cannot be ignored. Since the Scottish Tory Party is strictly apolitical, no accusation of bias can be incurred in reporting its activity – or, more accurately, passivity.

Among the four contenders to lead the herd browsing contentedly on the Holyrood pastures, one stands out above the others for the originality of his agenda. “Vote for me and I will put you out of your misery,” is the seductive pledge with which Murdo Fraser is touting for votes, a platform that resembles the prospectus of a Swiss suicide clinic. One would have thought he had been around long enough to realise there is no market for assisted suicide among the Scottish Tories: they have been committing self-slaughter unassisted for 14 years. Yet Fraser has brought a modicum of interest to the contest: commentators have been fascinated by the spectacle of an aspiring pack leader calling over his shoulder to the other lemmings: “Last over the cliff edge is a cissy!”

His main rival, Ruth Davidson, is transparently the London establishment candidate. In terms of political experience, she has been an MSP since May – a period that includes the Holyrood recess. Supporters of other contenders profess themselves appalled by the help given to her campaign by the party leadership, so incautiously on one occasion that it had to go through the motions of suspending a party spin doctor for partisan activity. But Davidson is female – a prerequisite for promotion, however unmerited, in Dave Cameron’s “modernised” Tory Party – and few of her biographies omit to proclaim the fact she lives with her lesbian partner, which may be a fiendishly cunning Baldrick plan to enthuse the blue-rinses. This candidature has Dave’s fingerprints all over it.

The remaining contenders, Jackson Carlaw and Margaret Mitchell, are more conventional, recognisably Conservative candidates, so can look for no favours from Dave. The baffling question is this: who in their right mind would want to preside over the nasty car crash that is the post-Annabel Goldie Scottish Conservative Party? Its membership is down to 8,600. Its Vichy collaboration with the Holyrood consensus has lost the party its core supporters – and we will not be coming back. In 1997, at its supposed nadir, the Scottish Tory Party won almost half a million votes (493,069); last May that figure was almost halved, down to 276,652. Small wonder, after Goldie had joined the Calman Commission, against the wishes of party activists, leading to the appalling Scotland Bill by which Dave is gifting Alex Salmond de facto independence.

Now the Scottish contagion has spread south. The Cameron-occupied Conservative Party is fully signed up to the “progressive consensus” and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brussels. It is part of the Europe-wide phenomenon of all political parties subscribing to the same programme – big government, Euro-federalism, high taxes, militant secularism, political correctness and complete contempt for their betrayed supporters. The Scottish Tories can take credit for having pioneered that path to perfidy. South of the Border, as last week’s Commons rebellion over Europe showed, there may be some vestigial resistance within the Tory Party to the liquidation of conservatism.

If so, it comes too late. It is no longer individual political parties but the entire system that has now exhausted the patience of the public. Every fresh development, be it the euro crisis, the unchecked influx of immigrants, the military interventions overseas, the domestic economy, demolishes the hubris of our rulers. On that broader canvas the self-induced travails of the Scottish Conservative Party can command little attention. Yet its betrayal of its supporters and of the vital interests of Scotland and of the United Kingdom has been extravagant and infamous. It will never be forgiven.

The best outcome of this election would be a victory for Murdo Fraser insofar as he is pledged to deposit this detritus in the dustbin of history.