Time and again, their more muscular – to borrow a phrase – approach to Westminster’s prerogatives has paid off. Yet they don’t set Union policy.
The Scottish Secretary, understated in his public utterances, “often makes the wittiest interjections in Cabinet discussions”.
There is no splitting the difference between the centre ground of British public opinion and an extreme minority of activist bullies.
So far public opinion has failed to rally behind the First Minister on either the constitutional principle or the substance of the s35 row.
They didn’t get a surge when the UK Internal Market Act passed and saw only a temporary one after their Supreme Court defeat. What about now?
The uniqueness of architecture that defines villages and towns has been replaced by concrete and stone chips. The variety of colours has been replaced by grey.
At the heart of the controversy lies the concerns of many women’s groups that a policy of self-ID of gender will leave women and girls vulnerable to males abusing the system to gain access to spaces reserved to females.
The UK’s equalities framework looks set to fragment because whilst the Equality Act is reserved, the Gender Recognition Act is not.
It was made at the same time that the police were opening a fraud investigation into the party over alleged misuse of its referendum fighting fund.
The first and best allies of the campaign for independence have always been pro-UK politicians who think they can buy it off.
The Scottish Conservatives claim that £1.5 million of public money has been spent trying to build the SNP’s case for independence.
Scotland under the Sturgeon is the highest-taxed and worst governed part of the UK. That’s the result of the SNP’s failure to square up to its responsibilities, rather than concentrating on their separatist fantasies.
Only one in ten 2019 Tories – let alone anyone else – expect an outright Conservative victory next time round. Such a sense of inevitability could prove the hardest political challenge of all.
Salmond bowed out after taking his shot at separation in 2014; his successor may feel that she can’t step down without doing the same.
And her government has decided that the best time to do all this is in the middle of the most serious energy crisis in decades.