Animal metaphors were much in evidence at the Scottish Conservative conference on 4 March. “When you have two elephants charging towards you,” said the Tory MEP Ian Duncan in his speech to a modest crowd, “always tackle the first elephant first, then move on to the next elephant.” He was referring to the Scottish Parliament elections in May and the European Union referendum on 23 June, a pairing that many Scottish Tories view with increasing trepidation.
This is curious. All the talk since the end of last year has been of a modest Conservative revival north of the border, with party strategists convinced that an attractive leader – the counter-intuitively un-Tory-seeming Ruth Davidson – plus strong opposition to tax rises and another independence referendum have the potential to attract Scotland’s embattled unionist majority.
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