Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd i 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd iiii 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives The Scottish Tory Party, 2011–19 Edited by DAVID TORRANCE 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd iiiiii 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organisation David Torrance, 2020 © the chapters their several authors, 2020 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/13 Giovanni by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and printed and bound in Great Britain. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 5562 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 5563 3 (paperback) ISBN 978 1 4744 5564 0 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 5565 7 (epub) The right of David Torrance to be identifi ed as the editor of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd iivv 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM CONTENTS List of Tables / vii Notes on the Contributors / viii Introductory Note / xi ONE / ‘Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives’, 2011–19 / 1 David Torrance TWO / Tory Revival in Scotland? Recent Evidence, Future Prospects / 31 Mark Diffl ey THREE / ‘We’ in Scotland or ‘She’ in Scotland? Scottish Conservative Manifesto Discourse during the Davidson Era / 42 Murray Stewart Leith FOUR / ‘Standing up for Scotland’ at Westminster? / 57 Paris Gourtsoyannis FIVE / The Scottish Conservatives and Local Government / 78 Lauren Toner, Chrysa Lamprinakou and Neil McGarvey SIX / ‘A lesbian with family values’: Gender and Sexuality in Ruth Davidson’s Leadership of the Contemporary Scottish Conservative Party / 95 Jennifer Thomson SEVEN / Riding the Unionist Wave: Ruth Davidson, the Media and the Re-emergence of the Scottish Conservatives / 107 David Patrick EIGHT / The Conservative ‘ Territorial Code’ under Strain / 126 Richard Hayton 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd v 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM vi / Contents NINE / The Scottish Conservative Party and the Three Unionisms / 139 Alan Convery TEN / Scottish Conservatism and Northern Ireland: Mapping an Ambivalent Relationship / 154 Jonathan Evershed ELEVEN / The Scottish Conservatives and Europe: The Reluctant Brexit Party / 169 Anthony Salamone TWELVE / A Tale of Two Nationalisms: Scottish Nationalism and Unionism in the Age of Disruption / 182 Gerry Hassan Notes / 193 Bibliography / 197 Index / 211 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd vvii 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM TABLES 2.1 Performance of the Conservative Party at general elections in Scotland since 1979 32 2.2 Performance of the Conservative Party at Scottish Parliament elections since 1999 32 2.3 Voting intention for the Scottish Parliament, October 2014 to May 2016 (constituency and regional votes) 33 2.4 Voting intention for Westminster, September 2016 to June 2017 (Conservative support) 34 2.5 General election vote among Scots who supported Scotland staying in the United Kingdom, 2015 and 2017 36 2.6 Political parties’ showing on social policy, 2015 and 2017 38 2.7 Voting intention for a UK general election among voters in Scotland, 2019 39 2.8 Changing vote share at European Parliament elections, 2014–19 39 5.1 The Conservative Party and Scottish local government in council elections, 1974–2017 81 5.2 National identity of Scottish Conservative candidates and voters compared with the Scottish population (2007, 2012 and 2017) 90 6.1 Percentage of female MSPs in the 5th Scottish Parliament (2016–21) by political party 97 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd vviiii 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS Alan Convery is senior lecturer in politics at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of The Territorial Conservative Party: Devolution and Party Change in Scotland and Wales (2016) and is the lead editor of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Mark Diffl ey is a social researcher, political pollster and consultant based in Edinburgh. He worked as Director of Ipsos MORI Scotland for ten years before launching his own company, Mark Diffl ey Consultancy and Research, in 2017. During his career, Mark has worked with and advised parties and campaigns from across the political divide, notably leading the UK Government’s polling during the 2014 independence referendum and, currently, advising Progress Scotland on its polling and research activity. Jonathan Evershed is a postdoctoral research fellow at University College Cork, where he works on the Economic and Social Research Council proj- ect ‘Between Two Unions: The Constitutional Future of the Islands after Brexit’. He specialises in the study of the politics and culture of Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland and his fi rst monograph, Ghosts of the Somme: Commemoration and Culture War in Northern Ireland, was published in 2018. Paris Gourtsoyannis has been Westminster correspondent of the Scotsman since 2016, covering the aftermath of the EU referendum and the 2017 gen- eral election. Prior to that, he worked on the Scottish edition of The Times, the Edinburgh Evening News and Holyrood magazine, where his fi rst assignment was Ruth Davidson’s leadership campaign launch in 2011. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2010. 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd vviiiiii 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM Notes on the Contributors / ix Dr Gerry Hassan is a writer, commentator and Senior Research Fellow at Dundee University. He has written and edited more than two dozen books on Scotland, the UK, social change and the future of society, poli- tics and ideas. His most recent publications include The People’s Flag and the Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party as well as the collections Scotland the Brave? Twenty Years of Change and the Future of the Nation and The Story of the Scottish Parliament: The First Two Decades Explained. Richard Hayton is associate professor of politics at the University of Leeds. He has published widely on British politics and the Conservative Party, and is founding editor of the New Perspectives on the Right book series hosted by Manchester University Press. Chrysa Lamprinakou is a research associate at the University of Strathclyde. She was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Parliamentary Candidates UK (PCUK) research programme, hosted by University College London and Birkbeck, University of London. She has also taught at University College London and Brunel University. Her research and teaching areas are British politics, elections, candidates and elected offi cials. Murray Stewart Leith is Professor of Political Science at the University of the West of Scotland. He researches national identity, nationalism and poli- tics and lectures widely on Scotland, the broader United Kingdom and the United States. His most recent works focus on the nature and identity of Scots both at home and abroad and the evolving diaspora policy of the Scottish Government. His latest co-authored work, Scotland: The New State of an Old Nation, will be published in 2020. Neil McGarvey is a senior teaching fellow in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He is the co-author (with Paul Cairney) of Scottish Politics (2008, 2013, new edition in draft) and has published widely in the fi elds of Scottish politics, local government and public administration. David Patrick works as a postdoctoral research fellow with the Interna- tional Studies Group (University of the Free State, South Africa). He was awarded his PhD in history from the University of Sheffi eld in 2013, and his fi rst monograph, Reporting Genocide: Media, Mass Violence and Human Rights, was published in 2018. His current research interests include media coverage of the 2014 independence referendum and sociological compo- nents related to professional boxing in the twentieth century. 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd iixx 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM x / Notes on the Contributors Anthony Salamone is Managing Director of European Merchants, the Scottish political insight fi rm which he founded in Edinburgh. A political scientist and analyst, his interests focus on EU politics and institutions, Scottish politics, British politics and international relations. He has degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the London School of Economics, and is completing a PhD in British and European politics at Edinburgh. He is a Members of the Edinburgh Europa Institute. Jennifer Thomson is a lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Bath. She is the author of Political Institutions and Abortion Law: Explaining Policy Resistance (2018) which looks at the case study of abortion law in Northern Ireland. She has published many articles in journals including International Studies Review, International Political Science Review and the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Lauren Toner graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a disserta- tion on the Scottish Conservative Party. She is currently an MSc student of political research, an undergraduate tutor and will begin her PhD in 2020. Her previous employment includes both the private and public sector, most recently at the Scottish Parliament. David Torrance was for many years a freelance journalist, writer and broad- caster, as well as author or editor of more than a dozen books on Scottish politics. Since 2018, he has kept his opinions to himself as a constitutional researcher at the House of Commons Library. 66343_Torrance.indd343_Torrance.indd x 118/05/208/05/20 33:06:06 PPMM INTRODUCTORY NOTE This volume was originally conceived as a study of the Scottish Conservative revival after the 2016 Holyrood elections.