Chris Grayling, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, has been on the airwaves to give the official Conservative "morning after" reaction to the Glenrothes by-election.
Despite the fact that the party came third and lost its deposit, Mr Grayling has found some crumbs of comfort.
PoliticsHome reports his remarks on the BBC News Channel that the result still gave the Conservatives "a platform" to re-establish themselves in Scotland.
"We've moved from fourth to third and I think we've got a platform to start to build a proper platform in Scotland," he said, rejecting claims that the Union would be damaged by a future Conservative government with little Scottish representation.
"The lesson of the past week is what's taken a dent is Alex Salmond's view that the Union should be broken up," he said.
Alex Salmond's support for Scottish independence had "unravelled enormously during the credit crunch and the banking crisis," he added.
Update - David Cameron has also echoed those remarks on Sky News:
“I’m pleased the Conservatives went from fourth to third, but this was always going to be a battle between Labour and the SNP,” the Tory leader said. “The real loser is the Scottish National Party, and as they want to break up our country and to destroy the union that I’m passionate about, maybe it’s no bad thing that the Salmond bounce has now disappeared.
"The Conservative party is as I say, now establishing itself as the third party in Scotland. That’s progress for us but we’ve still got along way to go,” he added.
