AT FIRST sight, the contrast between the two Tory leaders, elected in the past few weeks north and south of the border, could hardly be greater. One is the young contender, still in his thirties, Old Etonian, with boyish good looks, and a plausible platform manner. The other is, in her own words, a matron with a handbag.

But David Cameron and Annabel Goldie share one thing at least. They both have great charm. It is hard to see how you could fall out with either of them. They also present a very different kind of conservatism from the version espoused by Margaret Thatcher and Michael Howard, or even John Major — it is one that places emphasis on establishing close links with the voter rather than proclaiming an over-riding political ideology.

Ms Goldie took over the leadership after the resignation of David McLetchie. Some wondered whether she really wanted the job or whether she took it on out of duty to the party. She denies any reluctance. “I felt very sorry that David felt he had to stand down but I totally respected his decision to do that,” she said. “I pointed out that I felt he’d made an outstanding contribution, not only to the Conservative Party in Scotland but to Scottish politics in general. But we are where we are, the situation arose, I had to make certain decisions, I have taken these decisions, I do not regret them in any way whatsoever and I am certainly enjoying the job.”

She brings more than a touch of Miss Jean Brodie to the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament, ticking off her opponents rather than attacking them, flattering where necessary, and she is not above some mild flirtatiousness in dealing with the male majority in the chamber. She makes no apology for that.

“I am acutely aware that the way in which politicians set about their task has a resonance with the public,” she said. “I think you can do it forcefully, I think you can do it effectively. I think you can still do it with a degree of dignity and grace.”

She became a Tory at the age of 14 on top of a Greenock bus. “It was Harold Wilson,” she said. “We’d had 13 years of Conservative government and now suddenly we had a new Labour government with this Prime Minister called Harold Wilson and without knowing a lot about politics, even I was able to understand that he was promoting a very different type of political approach to Britain. A friend of mine who got on the school bus used to arrive with a Daily Express every morning, and from that I began to genuinely take an interest in what Labour was doing within Britain.

“I thought this was the most illogical and unworkable set of proposals and they went right against the grain of human nature and I then concluded I was a Conservative and that this social deliverance was an unwelcome blight on Britain.”

So how does she intend to convert a Scottish electorate that seems terminally hostile to Conservatism to her way of thinking? “I don’t think that Scotland’s political challenges for the Conservatives are insurmountable,” she said. “I’ve never thought that. What I do feel now confronts us, certainly in the devolved Parliament, is an opportunity. It’s a very perverse political paradox, but the people who placed such hope in the devolution dream are now the people who are most frustrated, most disappointed and in some cases angry at the failure of the Scottish Executive to translate the dream into a reality.”

She accepts that devolution is “a given — it will not go away” and she believes that the Tories, as a Unionist party, are well placed to capitalise on the dissatisfactions felt by large numbers of Scottish voters. She is unwilling to comment on whether she foresees the Tories joining a coalition, either with the Liberal Democrats or the Nationalists, but she is exploring opportunities to lower taxes.

Rather than commit herself at this stage to using the tax varying powers of the Scotland Act, she prefers to concentrate on council tax and business rates. She wants her party to reach out to vulnerable communities, and she regards her campaign on tackling drug abuse as central to her efforts to address the concerns of voters.

“I can tell you from having raised this issue, because I care passionately about it, my mail bag is telling me from all quarters of Scotland that this is an issue, that people are commending Scottish Conservatives for having the courage and the determination to take on the Scottish Executive,” she said.

So what happens if there is a Tory government at Westminster, and a Labour/Lib Dem majority in Scotland? This may be where the handbag will come in useful. “I think that the Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament could have a critical role to play in improving relationships between the southern government and parliament at Westminster, and the devolved presence in Scotland,” she said.

The idea of young David in London joining forces with the matron and her handbag in Edinburgh is an intriguing one for political analysts to contemplate. Just possibly, it might appeal to the voters as well.

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