Britain | Bagehot

To appreciate the SNP’s dominance, look at what it has done to the Tories

The Scottish Conservatives have come to resemble their opponents

TALK TO A Scottish Conservative for five minutes, and you will hear that he or she lives in a one-party state, gripped by what their leader, Douglas Ross, terms the “dead hand of nationalism”. Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, has been in office for seven years; her Scottish National Party (SNP) has been in power continuously for nearly 15. On the sidelines of the Scottish Conservative Party’s annual conference in Aberdeen on March 18th and 19th, Tories warned darkly that universities, charities and businesses are either run by nationalists or too cowed to dissent. They lament expansive new laws inhibiting free speech and meddling in family life. It is a vision of East Germany without the naturists.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “This deadly love”

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