pugnacious

"She has been described as pugnacious," Mrs Allen, 59, said.

The cacophony of an independence referendum campaign which had echoed through Scotland for three years had died away and Alex Salmond, so often the embodiment of pugnacious self-confidence, appeared pale and drained.

He was a primary colours politician — waspish, pugnacious, unrelenting, engaging — and at once complicated and undoubtedly controversial, in his politics and his personal conduct.

Witnesses called him "extraordinarily pugnacious" and "extremely demanding".

They believe they articulate a distinctive, original, pugnacious Conservatism that would present the government with the most awkward opposition.