The Scottish Conservatives are now ready to go on the offensive.

We have regrouped, we have listened to what our communities are telling us, we have put the lessons of the general election into practice, we have taken the criticisms on the chin.

Now we are fit for the fight back that will earn us a strong voice and a pivotal role in the Scottish Parliament.

Historic first elections

Our organisation is ready. We have the candidates in place to make an impact in the historic first elections for Holyrood.

The torch has passed to a new generation who are ready to grasp it and run with it to the goal of fresh success for our party in Scotland.

We have new activists in place to support bright new candidates, and new faces champing at the bit to make an impact in a new Scotland.

We have a wealth of talent, and most importantly of all we have a will to win.

And we have taken new heart, if such were needed, from the remarkable result of the North East Scotland European by-election announced on Friday, when our candidate Struan Stevenson in a fitting reward for his tremendous effort and hard work that epitomised todays revitalised Scottish Tories confounded all the critics by bulldozing Labour ignominiously into third place.

Strength of commitment

For us it was an excellent result. It vindicated our long-held contention that the opinion polls were seriously underestimating the true strength of the revival in our support.

Indeed it provided clear evidence that the polls have been failing badly to reflect the deepening mood of resentment, anger and discontent building up in the country against this Labour government and its cynical disregard for the damage its flawed economic policies are inflicting on every sector agriculture, industry, business, tourism.

For Labour it turned what had been a bad week into a disaster.

All the highly-paid spin doctors in the world; all the Millbank Militia parachuted in to bolster Donald Dewar were powerless to rescue his reputation this time.

The image salvers were all still too busy in any case trying to limit the damage caused by a leaked report revealing the deep if belated concerns of a heavily Labour-dominated committee, that Labours Scottish home rule package contained so many flaws that it could grease the pole leading to separation and the break-up of the United Kingdom.

Could this be a signal, many were asking, of a further dilution of Labour's commitment to devolution?

They will have to answer that one for themselves.

But there is no doubting the strength of the Scottish Tory commitment to the Scottish Parliament.

Our newly published Policy Commission document recommends, in fact, that devolution be extended.