Many saw him as the torch-bearer of the party's old ideology after Mr Lafontaine's exit.

ECONOMIST: Schr?der thumped

Nowadays Barack Obama is boxed in by a pincer movement of political correctness: his race on one flank, his squeaky-clean image as the torch-bearer of hope and change on the other.

BBC: Washington diary: Political humour

To win the leadership, Ms Davidson, who said too many see her party as "a brake on the aspirations of Scotland and not a torch-bearer", saw off a challenge from the party's then deputy leader, Murdo Fraser.

BBC: Ruth Davidson: Voters don't trust Tory motives