John Cooper is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway.
‘Charge both ways!’
That was the order Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest issued on discovering enemy troops ahead of – and behind him – at the 1863 Battle of Parker’s Crossroads in the American Civil War.
We Scottish Conservative and Unionists know the dilemma only too well after the recent Holyrood elections, for we also faced multiple threats on every flank.
Scotland’s politics have been volatile – indeed, at times febrile – since the Scottish Parliament reconvened in 1999 having been parked up by the Act of Union in 1707.
Today we face a fragmented picture, for Reform and the Greens have emerged as players.
Under the complex additional member system which gives voters two ballot papers, the Nationalists are today the largest party in Holyrood with 58 seats – mercifully short of the 65 for a majority.
Labour and Reform are tied for second on 17. The Scottish Greens – a separate outfit from Zack Polanski’s Barmy Army, but every bit as oddball – have 15.
We Conservatives are down to 12 from 31 seats, while perennial tail-enders the Lib Dems hold 10.
The big story was Labour’s collapse. Even a year ago, they were swaggering towards a majority in a Parliament designed not to deliver such a thing.
The precipitous descent into chaos of Labour at Westminster hurt them, and even trying to distance themselves from PM Keir Starmer cut little ice.
Scottish leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to go, but even Labour’s subsequent slow-motion Night of the Blunt Knives coup has yet to prise him from No10.
SNP First Minister John Swinney talked up his chances of a majority, concluding – wrongly – that this would give him a mandate to demand another independence referendum from Westminster.
With total turnout at 53 per cent, no amount of SNP spin can disguise the fact that they secured just 38.2 per cent on the constituency paper and only 27.2 per cent on the list ballot.
Their cobbled-together pro-independence majority is no mandate, and so Swinney has taken to plotting with fellow separatists Sinn Féin and Plaid Cymru to see if he can break up Britain that way.
In Scotland Reform are helmed – the number of yachts he owns became an issue in the election – by former Conservative peer Malcolm Offord.
With pockets deeper than The Solent where Offord likes to race, they did well, but the rock of Conservatism did hole them below the waterline.
In my Dumfries & Galloway constituency, I have two MSPs. Both fellow Tories won the constituencies after charging both ways, seeing off twin challenges from the SNP on the Left, and Reform on the Right.
It was no magic trick. We pounded the streets where it was clear the SNP had little to offer beyond the nostrum of independence.
Their message that Scots would have full employment in the glitter mines and a unicorn (Scotland’s national animal. No, really…) in every garden upon independence fell short in the 2014 independence referendum, and did so again.
Reform too were one-note. Though the immigration issue is not as pressing as in much of the rest of the UK, it does arise in even remote and rural Dumfries & Galloway.
But when it comes to policy, immigration is the tip of the ice cube for Reform.
There’s vanishingly little on the NHS, defence, the economy…
Recognisability of the candidates was low – some aren’t even household names in their own homes – and finding Nigel Farage’s name not on the ballot papers will have come as a shock to even diehards.
The Greens remain Marxist-lentillists, but struggle under the burden of their own inconsistencies.
Many of their supporters can afford to endorse their student socialism, even if policies such as multi-home taxes and yacht levies would directly affect their many well-heeled fans.
Their co-leader Gillian Mackay – of course they are so achingly PC that no one person can lead them as that’s just so elitist – epitomises their hypocrisy.
She called plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea ‘utterly reckless and planet-wrecking’.
But the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery? That was ‘an appalling way to treat workers’ who deserve a ‘just transition’. You could not redden such a brass neck with a blowtorch.
So whither now?
Tories cannot gloss over the fact that it was a bittersweet election with some excellent wins but an overall diminution such that we are no longer the second-largest party at Holyrood.
But we have shown Reform are beatable; that the break-up of Britain is not inevitable.
We did that by ploughing our own furrow, following our own North Star of Conservative common sense.
We talked common sense on farming across a blue wall of seats along the Border – we need to grow more of what we eat and to support agriculture, not treat it like a treasure chest for the Chancellor.
We talked common sense in the North East – we have an asset in the North Sea, one which can provide both energy security and good jobs in fossil fuels.
Nathan Bedford Forrest won the day at Parker’s Crossroads by charging both ways.
So we too need to be bold, yes, but practical and realistic. We need to demonstrate what we stand for, not merely point out the timber in the eyes of others.
We need to keep knocking doors, to be visible, to demonstrate a viability, a purpose.
Polls and pundits wrote us off. We’re down: but we’re not out. We’re outnumbered: but we’re never outgunned.
John Cooper is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway.
‘Charge both ways!’
That was the order Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest issued on discovering enemy troops ahead of – and behind him – at the 1863 Battle of Parker’s Crossroads in the American Civil War.
We Scottish Conservative and Unionists know the dilemma only too well after the recent Holyrood elections, for we also faced multiple threats on every flank.
Scotland’s politics have been volatile – indeed, at times febrile – since the Scottish Parliament reconvened in 1999 having been parked up by the Act of Union in 1707.
Today we face a fragmented picture, for Reform and the Greens have emerged as players.
Under the complex additional member system which gives voters two ballot papers, the Nationalists are today the largest party in Holyrood with 58 seats – mercifully short of the 65 for a majority.
Labour and Reform are tied for second on 17. The Scottish Greens – a separate outfit from Zack Polanski’s Barmy Army, but every bit as oddball – have 15.
We Conservatives are down to 12 from 31 seats, while perennial tail-enders the Lib Dems hold 10.
The big story was Labour’s collapse. Even a year ago, they were swaggering towards a majority in a Parliament designed not to deliver such a thing.
The precipitous descent into chaos of Labour at Westminster hurt them, and even trying to distance themselves from PM Keir Starmer cut little ice.
Scottish leader Anas Sarwar called on Starmer to go, but even Labour’s subsequent slow-motion Night of the Blunt Knives coup has yet to prise him from No10.
SNP First Minister John Swinney talked up his chances of a majority, concluding – wrongly – that this would give him a mandate to demand another independence referendum from Westminster.
With total turnout at 53 per cent, no amount of SNP spin can disguise the fact that they secured just 38.2 per cent on the constituency paper and only 27.2 per cent on the list ballot.
Their cobbled-together pro-independence majority is no mandate, and so Swinney has taken to plotting with fellow separatists Sinn Féin and Plaid Cymru to see if he can break up Britain that way.
In Scotland Reform are helmed – the number of yachts he owns became an issue in the election – by former Conservative peer Malcolm Offord.
With pockets deeper than The Solent where Offord likes to race, they did well, but the rock of Conservatism did hole them below the waterline.
In my Dumfries & Galloway constituency, I have two MSPs. Both fellow Tories won the constituencies after charging both ways, seeing off twin challenges from the SNP on the Left, and Reform on the Right.
It was no magic trick. We pounded the streets where it was clear the SNP had little to offer beyond the nostrum of independence.
Their message that Scots would have full employment in the glitter mines and a unicorn (Scotland’s national animal. No, really…) in every garden upon independence fell short in the 2014 independence referendum, and did so again.
Reform too were one-note. Though the immigration issue is not as pressing as in much of the rest of the UK, it does arise in even remote and rural Dumfries & Galloway.
But when it comes to policy, immigration is the tip of the ice cube for Reform.
There’s vanishingly little on the NHS, defence, the economy…
Recognisability of the candidates was low – some aren’t even household names in their own homes – and finding Nigel Farage’s name not on the ballot papers will have come as a shock to even diehards.
The Greens remain Marxist-lentillists, but struggle under the burden of their own inconsistencies.
Many of their supporters can afford to endorse their student socialism, even if policies such as multi-home taxes and yacht levies would directly affect their many well-heeled fans.
Their co-leader Gillian Mackay – of course they are so achingly PC that no one person can lead them as that’s just so elitist – epitomises their hypocrisy.
She called plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea ‘utterly reckless and planet-wrecking’.
But the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery? That was ‘an appalling way to treat workers’ who deserve a ‘just transition’. You could not redden such a brass neck with a blowtorch.
So whither now?
Tories cannot gloss over the fact that it was a bittersweet election with some excellent wins but an overall diminution such that we are no longer the second-largest party at Holyrood.
But we have shown Reform are beatable; that the break-up of Britain is not inevitable.
We did that by ploughing our own furrow, following our own North Star of Conservative common sense.
We talked common sense on farming across a blue wall of seats along the Border – we need to grow more of what we eat and to support agriculture, not treat it like a treasure chest for the Chancellor.
We talked common sense in the North East – we have an asset in the North Sea, one which can provide both energy security and good jobs in fossil fuels.
Nathan Bedford Forrest won the day at Parker’s Crossroads by charging both ways.
So we too need to be bold, yes, but practical and realistic. We need to demonstrate what we stand for, not merely point out the timber in the eyes of others.
We need to keep knocking doors, to be visible, to demonstrate a viability, a purpose.
Polls and pundits wrote us off. We’re down: but we’re not out. We’re outnumbered: but we’re never outgunned.