If Only

Any candidate in a party leadership election may struggle to establish a distinct message from the others standing. Murdo Fraser, seeking to succeed the formidable, nay redoubtable Annabel Goldie as leader of Scottish Tories has certainly made his mark with his brilliantly simple plan. If elected he will er...disband the party.

Before all other parties starting ordering champagne chasers with their pints of heavy, we should realise this seemingly drastic suggestion is simply an exercise in re-branding.

Scottish Tories are indeed a dwindling rump of support. In the fifties, old Harold SuperMac, held a majority of Scottish seats in the heady days of 'One Nationism' .

But Mac's nemesis, Thatcher, used the Scottish people as lab rats on some of her more grand socio-economic experiments such as the 'poll tax'. The loss of nearly all Scottish heavy industry in a few short years underlined an ignorance in Westminster of the value of a long heritage of industrial knowledge and skill suddenly considered obsolete by stockbroker Ministers from the Home Counties. They've got long memory north of the border.

So when the Conservatives finally got their judgement in 1997, the answer was political wipeout. Even in 1992, the Tories still held 11 seats on a quarter of the vote and even gained one seat from Labour (Aberdeen South). Since the annihilation in '97 the maximum they have realised is just one seat. So a radical plan is merited however futile the exercise may appear to be.

The new name is the critical issue. Before 1965, they were simply Unionists and that would make some sense in establishing identity by opposing the SNP's creep toward an independence referendum. However, there are English Tory supporters and MPs who would be happy to cut the Scots out, so this approach would lack the neccessary unity between Holyrood and Westminster.

The rise of the SNP looks more than a little temporary and has prevented the Tories making any progress with the electorate's general disenchantment with Labour. The people are simply not attracted to them and it will take more than a new political deodorant to change that.