By all accounts, Ruth Davidson’s return to frontline politics was a successful one yesterday.
As far as the Conservative faithful are concerned anyway.
The Tories’ leader in Scotland looked revitalised, energised and ready to get back into the thick of her work as she appeared at conference in Aberdeen.
That’s what several months of watching CBeebies will do to a grown-up.
The rhetoric was lapped up by the party faithful.
Drawing on her own experience, Davidson emphasised her party’s commitment to maximising opportunity and encouraging personal responsibility.
Much of her speech focused on the best the Conservatives have to offer. There were, however several underlying problems.
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The elephant in the room, as ever, was Brexit.
Davidson made the right noises to keep her right with Theresa May – the need for democracy to be respected, Brexit to be delivered, etc etc.
The trouble is nobody believes that this is what Davidson really thinks.
The received wisdom is that she hates Brexit as much as most sensible observers and her views might, in other circumstances, have seen her on last month’s People’s Vote march six weeks ago.
Instead, on the biggest issue of the age which remains a giant running sore throughout our politics, Davidson appears to be as ideologically apart as it’s possible to be from the prevailing mood in her party. The danger is that this popular politician starts to look less than principled for as long as she has to toe the party line.
Another problem for Davidson is Indyref 2.
There is clearly much water to flow under the bridge before any independence referendum begins in earnest – with much political turmoil predicted before we are anywhere near a new campaign.
Davidson, though, clearly fancies being the face of the union next time around.
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Her commitment is to be admired, especially for someone who has already said she finds the prospect of being PM dangerously stressful.
Like everyone else in our frontline politics, the suspicion is that Davidson might flourish better in an environment where both of these questions are finally settled.
Her position for now is similar to that of most Scottish leaders with a head office in London to answer to. Awkward.
Despite that, it might just be less stressful than dealing with a spirited one-year-old.
