The case hinges on Rwanda’s capacity to deliver the necessary safeguards, not on any claim that the entire policy is a breach of international law.
In the meantime, the Scottish Conservatives are gearing up to go on the offensive.
Even were this not the case, such ratings only weakly correlate to general election outcomes. There is no getting around the hard work of repairing the Party’s standing with voters.
The Nationalists’ dominant position in Scottish politics was built on uniting the 2014 Yes vote. Absent progress on separation, it is fracturing.
One can well imagine the public response to any such campaign. We get the political class we deserve.
As Ed Miliband learned in 2015, it doesn’t matter how popular your policies are individually if voters don’t buy into your broader offer.
After 13 years in government, the right needs to ask itself hard questions. But who will do the asking?
The First Minister reportedly told mutinous colleagues to quit the party if they weren’t prepared to support his predecessor.
It indicates that his conduct since stepping down as an MP is why the sanction is so severe – but doesn’t tell us, beyond being sufficient to trigger a recall, what the original would have been.
if there are going to be political peers at all, there needs to be some connection to democratic politics. Allowing the parties to nominate peers is that link.
Having run as her heir, he seems unable or unwilling to put enough distance between his regime and hers if the fraud investigation blows up.
The conference exhibited scepticism about levelling up and widespread enthusiasm for devolution – but less cognisance of the trade-offs it entails.
Without him, the disaffected right lacks the profile, the programme, or the machine to capitalise on the Conservatives’ weaknesses.
The Government has once again taken on the Nationalists and, contra 25 years of devolutionary received wisdom, won the day.