Tom Peterkin: Barely five months into her Conservative leadership and Ruth Davidson is under pressure to perform

Ruth Davidson has been leader of the Scottish Tories for barely five months, but already the chattering classes in the Scottish Parliament are talking about her having to make “the speech of her life” this weekend.

As the Conservatives were preparing to head to Troon for the Scottish conference, there was a gathering of the “intelligentsia” that frequents the Holyrood bar. Discussion turned to the state of Davidson’s leadership and her need to get a grip on her party.

“The Tory benches are mutinous,” declared a bottle of India Pale Ale.

“Naw… mutinous is too strong a word,” a large Scotch and water said dismissively.

“Perhaps they are a bit restless,” was the rather meek suggestion of a pint of lager.

“Naaaaw… that’s too weak a word,” growled the large Scotch and water.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the intellectual capabilities of these three sages did not stretch to finding an adjective that described precisely the feeling of unease that now surrounds Davidson’s leadership.

The short-comings of their vocabulary may have prevented them from articulating what their political antennae had picked up, but the point was that all three had detected murmurings of discontent.