Tories and logic

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Two days ago, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives resigned suddenly declaring that he wasn’t the right man for the job, just six months after being elected to it. There has been wide speculation that he was pushed by London rather than falling, presumably because he was widely seen as ineffective. The Tories seem to have read that part correctly at least. The opinion polls indicate that support for both the SNP and independence is rising and becoming more solid in Scotland, and that there is deep antipathy towards Boris Johnson amongst Conservative voters in Scotland (let alone amongst non-Conservative voters). Check, and check again – two more probably correct readings of the situation.

There’s just one part that I don’t understand, and that’s this – what was the discussion and logic that led the Scottish Conservatives to throw their elected leader overboard at the behest of said unpopular figure with a view to installing – without anything so grubby as an election – a man hand-picked for the role by the same deeply unpopular PM?  I’m obviously missing the logical connection which explains how the way to deal with the perception that Johnson’s unpopularity is leading towards electoral disaster is to be seen to be doing exactly what he wants. Panic does funny things to logic, I suppose.