Scottish Conservatives let Michael Crow go and their plush HQ, what's next?

The Scottish Conservatives are going through a real internal struggle at the moment, during the general election they made a huge issue of targeting eleven seats, despite only starting with one.

They spent huge amounts of money on advertising vans as their daily photo props including a garage and container lorry one day, but what did these achieve?  Very little in reality other than a few spots on the election gaffes video done during the final week of the campaign.

So, what was the effect of their targeting strategy, erm, well, nothing, not one seat changed hands in Scotland, the Conservatives started with one MP, David Mundell and he is still their solitary MP.

It finished Labour 41, Liberal Democrats 11, SNP 6 and Conservatives 1.

Then we hear the Scottish Conservatives are to move out of their offices on Princes Street, The Scotsman claim these cost £100,000 per year, into their association office in Edinburgh North & Leith, another step down.

Internal criticism was next with Conservative Peer Lord Forsyth describing his party as a "marginal" force in Scotland.  He said it was time for a structural rethink of the Conservatives north of the border.

Hours later we hear there is to be a great review into why the Conservatives did not advance in Scotland.

Scottish Conservative chairman Andrew Fulton announced he is setting up a commission;

A commission, chaired by Lord Sanderson, will be set up to look at the structures of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and examine how it works, and recommend any changes which would strengthen it.

This commission seemed to create even more splits within the rank and file of the Scottish Conservatives and finally yesterday the crack opened up enough to swallow Michael Crow.

Michael Crow was appointed just 18 months ago as the Scottish Conservatives Director of Strategy and Communications on a reported six figure salary.

The party, which won just one Scottish seat on 6 May, said he was let go as director of strategy and communications due to "financial constraints".

But if you read between the lines in some of the tributes in yesterdays Scotsman, there is also an apparent dislike, is this because he dragged the Scottish Conservatives into a modern political party that they are uncomfortable with?

Or is this just a split between modernisers and the old guard?

Conservative MSP David McLetchie, who is their Chief Whip in Holyrood told The Scotsman;

"I've won my seat on two occasions, even defeating the current Labour leader [Iain Gray].  I didn't need Michael Crow's help to do that...."

Ouch - bitter or what?  Maybe jealous of the reported salary Michael Crow was on?

So, the HQ has gone, the Director of Strategy and Communications has gone, who or what is next???