Douglas Ross mimics Ruth Davidson's famous tank photoshoot in Holyrood bid

WITH just over one month until election day, and with the latest poll suggesting Labour will become the largest Unionist party at Holyrood, the Scottish Tories have decided to up their game.

So far the Conservatives’ election strategy has consisted almost entirely of attacking the other parties - claiming Labour is too soft on constitutional issues and the SNP too focused on them.

In an effort to reverse their party fortunes, perhaps they considered highlighting some policies? If they did, those considerations were swiftly ignored.

READ MORE: Shona Craven: Ruth Davidson's attempts to smear all Yes supporters won't wash

Instead, Douglas Ross has decided to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. Not Jackson Carlaw (the Tories seem to be pretending his leadership never happened), but Ruth Davidson.

This may not be such a crazy tactic, since the poll yesterday showed that while just 18% of Scots have a positive view of Ross, a sizable 39% have a positive view of Davidson. But, being Tories, their net favourability scores are negative 15 and negative 3 respectively.

Never mind that. One thing the soon-to-be Baroness Davidson did well was pose on top of military hardware. After all, the British army is one of the key benefits of the Union (that and the vaccine rollout - according to just about every Tory politician anyway).

Ruth Davidson on a tank. Photo: PA

Who could forget those photos of Davidson, a former army reservist and current honorary colonel, straddling the barrel of a tank flying the Union flag?

Unfortunately, not us.

In an effort to create his own memorable moment, Ross has clambered up onto his own army vehicle.

Now, the Jouker is far from an expert on war machines, so we’re going to call it an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC).

One thing is clear even to us though: in a metaphor almost too apt, Ross’s big army vehicle is certainly a step down from Davidson’s tank.

But then a step up is apparently pretty difficult for Ross to manage. Here’s Ross once he’s completed the arduous climb onto the APC bonnet.

Here he is again from such a distance it makes you wonder why he hasn’t taken his mask off yet.

Here he is standing on the APC in a classic Tory wide-legged power pose.

And here he is sitting on it as if he hasn’t quite worked out how to sit down yet.

That’s not the only photoshoot Douglas Ross has taken part in recently, as he yesterday headed to a Glasgow hospital to hold up a sign praising Scotland’s vaccine rollout.

There, as anywhere Ross goes, problems struck. Who could have guessed they would come from that Great British wind?

Douglas Ross struggles with his banner. Photo: PA

He got there in the end though, but needed a bit of help packing it away apparently.

Bizarrely considering his long-distance APC shot, the closeness to another person here apparently didn't warrant a mask.