Murdo Fraser is Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament.
Wednesday's announcement from David Cameron that the Conservative Party supports increased taxation and borrowing powers for the Scottish Parliament, and that a Conservative Government will legislate in this area, represents a significant boost for the Scottish Tories.
The Party in Scotland has been making progress in recent years, and on the basis of the European Election results we would win 6 Westminster seats, including that of the Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy in East Renfrewshire. But we are hungry for faster progress and greater successes.
There is no doubt that in the past our electoral prospects were harmed by the accusation from our political opponents that we were 'anti-Scottish', arising from our opposition to devolution in the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, we have worked hard to play a constructive role in the Scottish Parliament that we opposed, and under the leadership of first David McLetchie and now Annabel Goldie have steadily rebuilt respect. Nevertheless, there was always a suspicion amongst some that our support for devolution was a grudging one. Yesterday's announcement shows that we have not just accepted devolution but that we are now determined to move it on.
Whatever the justification for our stance against the formation of the Scottish Parliament, it put us in opposition to mainstream Scottish public opinion on the constitution, and as a Party we are still paying the electoral price for that. Our new position that we will support increased taxation powers demonstrates that we have learned from that mistake and that we will not again set our faces against the legitimate aspirations of the Scottish people. What a contrast this is to the SNP who continue to dogmatically pursue their aim of independence despite public support levels for that policy now consistently below 30%.
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