RUTH Davidson's success is displacing Labour as the main opposition owed a great deal to her party packaging itself as the uncompromising defender of Scottish Unionism.

But Davidson also went to great lengths to portray herself as a so called 'compassionate' Conservative, who was prepared to take a different line to the Tories at Westminster over some of the then Chancellor George Osborne's austerity cuts.

How quickly this mask of 'cuddly' Scottish Conservatism has slipped, with Davidson closely tying herself to the coattails of Tory cabinet members who could yet oversee a 'Hard Brexit'.

This newspaper believes it is an abomination that the party responsible for years of brutal austerity has the status as the formal opposition to the SNP at Holyrood.

Many will have hoped that the Tories in Scotland would have long since been consigned to what Leon Trotsky called the "dustbin of history" after inflicting devastating damage on this country with the wholesale destruction of industries such as mining, not to mention the imposition of the hated Poll Tax.

To have the Tories overtake Labour is not just a tragedy for the party of John Smith and Robin Cook, but also for a country in which values of social solidarity are cherished.

The Sunday Herald does not want an opposition headed by the Tories. We want a progressive opposition that will hold the SNP Government to account from the left when it falls short.

As things stand Kezia Dugdale's Scottish Labour shows no sign of being able to supply this. As such, she should go.