Ruth Davidson

Colonel Davidson
Born	Ruth Elizabeth Davidson 10 November 1978 Edinburgh, Scotland
Alma mater	Edinburgh University, Glasgow University
Party	Scottish Conservatives
Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party In office 4 November 2011 - Present  Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central In office 6 May 2016 - Present  Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow In office 6 May 2011 - 6 May 2016  Leader of the Scottish Conservatives In office 4 November 2011 - Present  Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow(1 of 7 Regional MSPs) In office 6 May 2011 - 6 May 2016

Ruth Davidson (born 10 November 1978) is a Scottish politician. She heads the Scottish Conservatives, making her the leader of the second largest party at the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). She sits as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh Central.

Will Ruth Davidson stand for a Westminster seat, asks Bella Caledonia?:

"The whole ‘will she won’t she’ debate is a hoot. Of course she will – as soon as she can. She’s probably sleeping in the parachute they’ll use to lower gently into some safe-haven right now, to arrive a benighted martyr, the "One True King in the North" etc etc.

"The problem for the narrators of this blockbuster is not that Ruth Davidson is a formidable (if utterly vacuous) politician but that the Tory Party has been captured by their own far-right who are about to destroy the economy. In such a context the grooming of the Colonel is a sideshow for journalists bored of the reality of 'British Disaster Capitalism'."

Political career

After graduating from Edinburgh University, she worked as a BBC journalist. She served in the Territorial Army, as a signaller. After leaving the BBC in 2009 to study International Development at Glasgow University, Davidson joined the Conservative Party, and was the party's candidate in the Glasgow North East constituency at a 2009 by-election and at the 2010 general election, finishing in 3rd and 4th place respectively, with approximately 5% of the vote.

In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Davidson stood for election in the Glasgow Kelvin constituency and on the Glasgow regional list. She finished in 4th place in the former, but was successful in the latter, and following party leader Annabel Goldie's resignation in May 2011, Davidson stood in the subsequent leadership election. She won the contest and was declared party leader on 4 November 2011.

Contrast with May

According to The Economist:

"Ruth Davidson is an antidote to much that is wrong with the Conservative Party: both a standing indictment of the current state of her party in the south and proof that there is still hope for Conservatism. Ms Davidson is the polar opposite of Theresa May. Most obviously she is a winner: under her leadership the Scottish Tories increased their number of MPs from one to 13 while Mrs May lost her overall majority. Mrs May is mind-bogglingly inarticulate for someone who has been in politics all her life—all formulaic phrases and woolly banalities. Ms Davidson is a great talker."

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Ruth Davidson slammed over high-level Tory visit to illegal Israeli settlement	Article	13 November 2016	Martin Williams	Al-Marsad director Dr Nizar Ayoub told Ruth Davidson: "The only part of Syria that Israel borders is the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The fighting in Syria is not taking place metres away from Israel, it is taking place metres away from the occupied Syrian Golan."

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 9 November 2017.
Wikipedia is not affiliated with Wikispooks.   Original page source here