IT’S well over 100 days since the election in June saw the Scottish Tories make a remarkable comeback. They’re now ensconced not just as the opposition in Holyrood, but as the second-largest Scottish party in Westminster. Much of that success was predicated on the profile of their Scottish leader, Ruth Davidson, and opposition to a second independence referendum. But, what have they done since then and what are they for now?

After all politics is about ideas and actions, not just what you stand for, but what you do with whatever power or leverage that you have. That goes from the SNP in Holyrood with its programme for governmen, to the DUP extracting more than a billion for Northern Ireland as part of the deal to keep the hapless Theresa May in power.

Now, the Scottish Unionists have more seats than their Ulster cousins, 13 as opposed to 10. Yet they have extracted precisely nothing for Scotland. Of course, they’re part of the British Conservative and Unionist Party which their Irish colleagues aren’t. But, still you’d have thought that a quite momentous victory would be marked by some modest contribution.

After all, Tories from times past liked to extol the benefits of not just of the Union but what their party specifically brought. Even Michael Forsyth was able to trumpet the return of the Stone of Destiny. It may have only satisfied him and his ilk but at least it was something he was able to claim credit for.

As it is, promised extra powers for Holyrood have disappeared, and even the genuflection towards removing VAT from emergency services has been abandoned. Now a cut to rail funding is imposed, even though HS2 will halt well short of the Border and yet be paid for by Scottish taxpayers.

Ms Davidson did remarkably well giving the Tories an image that was vastly different from the nasty party perception from the Margaret Thatcher days. Socially liberal,she was young and energetic, embracing the remain campaign with greater fervour than her current leader. She energised them and freshened the image, even as it faltered down south.

In Holyrood the harsh face of conservatism was also eschewed. Unpopular policies such as ending free prescriptions were binned, universal health care provisions like Frank’s Law were openly campaigned for and the cruelty of Tory benefit cuts from London bodyswerved. Feisty and likeable, it’s no wonder she was not just a conference darling, but a media one.

But in Westminster now, it’s hard to see anything about which they can claim to be distinctively Scottish or indeed anything that they can tangibly claim to have provided. For sure their MPs are new and raw. Hence why the profile so far has been on rabid remarks about gypsy travellers by one and a confession of not voting in the EU referendum as it was finely balanced by another. They’re young and can lear, but what of the party as an institution? Just what is it for in Westminster and in Scotland?

It’s almost as if the Tories have been pursuing a good cop/ bad cop strategy north and south of the Border. David Mundell, whom I’ve always found to be personable and reasonable, has been left to articulate the harsh face of modern Toryism, seeing off demands not just from nationalists but wider Scottish society and acting as chief refusenik – whilst Ms Davidson has distanced herself from it and espoused all things nice. It’s as if they’re entirely different parties in the two institutions.

Yet when push came to shove it was always the Scottish wing that crumbled. Hence the spirited articulation of Remain was replaced by supine acceptance of Brexit. Even demands for maintaining single market or customs union membership have been soaked up without demur despite past acceptance of likely calamity for Scotland. It’s as if there’s no policy so unpalatable that the Scottish Tories wont swallow, if asked.

Now, of course a likely increase in taxes at Holyrood will give the Tories some clear blue water between themselves and other parties – though they’ve been demanding improved services to date yet failing to say what they’d cut or how they’d pay for it; never mind welcoming enforced austerity from London. It will, though. allow them to rally the core vote that has always existed.

However, the Scottish Tories always appeared a kinder and gentler party than the nest of vipers that even the Cabinet in London now reflects. But, as time passes it’s clear that they’ve delivered nothing with their success in June and that the veneer of liberality painted by Ms Davidson has quickly faded.

Politics is about ideas and actions. Yet it seems the Scottish Tories accept their instructions from elsewhere and get nothing in return. Some might wonder why they voted for them.