EVEN the opponents of the Tory Party have often said that whatever setbacks the Conservatives have faced, the party always recovers. It will never disappear, they say.

But could the row over Europe be just too much for the Tories to survive? To say the party is in turmoil is an understatement. It is involved in a grisly civil war, tearing itself to ribbons.

Some of the remarks have been so personal and insulting that one wonders how the Conservatives can ever be a united party of sweetness and light after the referendum result is announced, whichever way it goes.

Sir John Major, who is still a powerful voice in the Tory Party, has denounced Justice Secretary Michael Gove, saying he should be ashamed of his campaign for Brexit. There is now a distinct coolness between Gove and David Cameron, once the closest of friends.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is flailing about in all directions at those of his colleagues who, he claims, want to see a Hitler-type state in Europe.

Some of these wounds may be too deep to heal. So could we be looking at the unthinkable - a British political scenario bereft of a Tory Party as we know it today?

It certainly cannot now be ruled out.

SOME years ago, Margaret Thatcher said she wanted to see the map of Scotland painted blue again. At that time, the politics in Scotland was dominated by Labour.

But at the recent Scottish Parliamentary elections, Labour flopped badly at the polls. Instead, the Scottish National Party, which shook everyone by its successes at the general election in May last year, remains the dominant party north of the border.

But that supremacy has been dented significantly by the advances of the Conservatives under their tough leader Ruth Davidson.

Under her leadership last month, the Tories pushed Labour into third place in Scotland - a feat which would have been regarded as virtually impossible only a few months ago.

Could Davidson become the new Margaret Thatcher? That is not beyond the bounds of possibility, even probability. They don't come much tougher.

She once rode a buffalo for a stunt and, on another occasion recently, she held a helicopter door closed - it had flown open right next to her in mid-air. Others might have panicked, but not Davidson. She held on to the door until the pilot landed the chopper.

Davidson, who has already been termed The Iron Lassie, has started on her work with the paint brush. Expect more daubs of blue paint in the not-too-distant future. This lady, like the former Tory leader, does not give up.

It looks as though the Tartan Tories could be on the march again...

WOULD you expect a politician to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I thought not...

The reputation and trust enjoyed by the political profession these days is shockingly low. Most people now believe that, at the very least, you have to unravel a whole imbroglio of spin before you can get anywhere near the truth of what an MP is saying.

But when a politician thinks no one can hear him, he may blunder into the truth. David Cameron was the other day caught out saying that Nigeria and Afghanistan were fantastically corrupt regimes. Would he have said that openly at a public meeting? I doubt it.

The same with John Major, who once described those members of his cabinet who were giving him a hard time over Europe as "b*****ds", unaware that a microphone had picked up his words.

Equally, Gordon Brown, when he was Prime Minister, described a Labour supporter in Rochdale as "a bigot" after exchanges about immigration. That, too, was picked up by a stray microphone. And no matter how much Brown grovelled and apologised to the woman, that was plainly what he believed.

So, let us have more of these so-called gaffes, if it is the only way to get the truth out of these people.

:: There seems to be no end to the unrest in the Labour Party about Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

The latest critic is moderate Labour back-bencher Peter Kyle who said: "I won't be bullied into uniting round a losing leader."

Strong words. But so far, Corbyn has remained undaunted by all the flak and "friendly fire" buzzing around his head.

He looks to be made of sterner stuff than his own party critics care to admit.