Solid Workers

The departure of Ruth Davidson from the lofty heights of the Scottish Tories would normally make big news, but thanks to a certain announcement and attendant preoccupations, her eminence was relegated to the literal margins of the nation's news sites. Don't worry Ruth fans, it won't be the last we see of her. Davidson's resignation letter didn't say much of note, which makes it interesting. As a new mum wanting more time with her son and family, who can blame her from bailing out of front line politics while matters are this fraught and chaotic? Well, ever keen to find a subtext a line of interpretation on pundit Twitter has zeroed in on her concluding remarks. She writes "Be assured I will continue to support the party, the Prime Minister and Scotland's place in the United Kingdom from the backbenches and beyond." A coded warning to Johnson to not jeopardise the union for Brexit? I smell over-interpretation. If Davidson wanted to troll the Prime Min...

John McDonnell was a bit naughty talking off the cuff about the Labour Party and its approach to Scottish independence. But he's right. In his chat with Iain Dale at the Edinburgh fringe, the shadow chancellor said a Labour government would not stand in the way of a second Scottish independence referendum if Holyrood was minded to call one. This is against Conservative policy and, as it happens, Labour policy too. Ian Murray, the ever-useless member for Edinburgh South and the sole Labour survivor of the 2015 wipe out retorted that this is giving succour to those "who want to divide communities and people", and runs against Labour's "internationalist" values. What codswallop. Let's consider Labour's strategic dilemma in Scotland. The party generally is against Scottish independence and would prefer either the UK, or some reformed, federalised successor state to continue with Scotland as an integral part of it. The latter is my view, as it happens. ...

In their 1994 study of the Tory party membership, Patrick Seyd, Jeremy Richardson and Paul Whiteley came to the surprising conclusion that despite the success of the Thatcher years, the membership were, in the main, distinctly non-Thatcherite and much less extreme than the "swivel-eyed loons" referenced 20 years later . Well, if a certain YouGov poll of party members is anything to go by, we've gone way beyond even that . In case you haven't heard, 63% would rather have Brexit if it meant Scotland leaving the UK, 61% if it meant severe damage to the UK economy, 59% if Northern Ireland left, and 54% prioritise Brexit over the continued survival of the Conservative Party . The only thing that is not an acceptable price to pay is Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10. Interesting. Okay, so what is happening. How have we gone from a party whose official mythology paints it as level headed, and pragmatic in the pursuit of power to, well, outright psychopathy? Stephen Bush suggests ...