Scots Tories look towards new leader

Can Hague's successor revive Scots Tory fortunes?

Conservative strategists seemed to accept before last month's general election, that they are a minority opposition party north of the border.

So they concentrated on what they saw as winnable targets. They won just one seat - Galloway and Upper Nithsdale.

If we have the right policies, the right leader, we can make tremendous in-roads

Scots Tory activist

But in the coastal constituency of Ayr - which was on their wishlist - local activists say the statistics are misleading.

"The reality is we haven't been in the doldrums for four years - we won a by-election. We improved our position significantly in local elections," says party member.

"The pendulum if it swings fast to one side can swing just as fast to the other. If we have the right policies, the right leader, we can make tremendous in-roads. But we've got to believe in ourselves," says another activist.

An English party?

But Malcolm Dickson, lecturer in politics at Strathclyde University, says there are fundamental problems that Tories in Scotland and their new UK leader have to tackle:

"They need to shake off the perception in Scotland that they are an English-based party governing largely in English interests," he says.

Peter Duncan: the Tories' one Westminister MP

Grass roots Conservatives in Ayr just laugh when you ask if they need to re-invent themselves, as the New Conservatives. But Malcolm Dickson says they do have to learn some lessons from Labour:

"What the Labour party has done very successfully is to juggle the British and the Scottish elements of the policy agenda," he says.

"Since the 1950s and 1960s the Tories have failed to reconnect the idea of Unionism with the emerging idea of Scottishness - which is a central tenet in politics here."

Accepting devolution

That analysis finds some favour with senior Scottish Conservatives such as Lord (George) Younger - MP for Ayr from 1964 to 1992.

A former Chairman of the Party in Scotland, and Scottish Secretary for seven years.

He says now that devolution is a reality, like it or not, the new Tory leader has to devise a way to give MSPs full authority over Scottish affairs.

So what do Conservatives in Ayr want their new leader to do?

Present themselves as a trustworthy, credible government-in-waiting rather than an opposition party.

The five contenders are all due to speak at a closed meeting of Conservative MPs in Westminster tonight. The result is due to be announced on 12 September.