They might pick up a few seats at GE15. They used to win several dozen.
At Holyrood their vote share and MSP's returned doesn't appear to have moved much from 1999. They are a bit hamstrung, in my view, by not being large enough to be the main opposition party (although I'm not sure that's a formal concept at Holyrood) and also being very, very reluctant to enter a coaltion. Not being prepared to enter a government and therefore not presenting a credible threat of doing so rather limits their effectiveness. I mean there's definitly a role for some people who can string two sentences together to scrutinise the government's policies and actions but that's where the Scottish Tories start and finish at the moment.
Like Labour they are hampered by the same influence by London over policy and by the same draw to Westminster.
But, to be honest, that's all a bit by-the-by in an existential fight to the death between the SNP and the Labour Party.
no subject
At Holyrood their vote share and MSP's returned doesn't appear to have moved much from 1999. They are a bit hamstrung, in my view, by not being large enough to be the main opposition party (although I'm not sure that's a formal concept at Holyrood) and also being very, very reluctant to enter a coaltion. Not being prepared to enter a government and therefore not presenting a credible threat of doing so rather limits their effectiveness. I mean there's definitly a role for some people who can string two sentences together to scrutinise the government's policies and actions but that's where the Scottish Tories start and finish at the moment.
Like Labour they are hampered by the same influence by London over policy and by the same draw to Westminster.
But, to be honest, that's all a bit by-the-by in an existential fight to the death between the SNP and the Labour Party.