Liz Truss has been accused of tarnishing the unionist case against Scottish independence after calling Nicola Sturgeon an “attention seeker” who ought to be ignored during a hustings on Monday.
The Tory leadership favourite decided Exeter – one of the furthest points from the Scottish border – would be the opportune moment to engage in a bit of mudslinging to show her contempt for the First Minister.
But in doing so she highlighted another very sobering reality: That Scotland has become irrelevant to the Conservative Party, who now view the country with disdain.
They say Westminster is like the ripples of an earthquake – the further you move away the less likely you are to feel their effect.
The North of England has been the first victim of that under the current Tory administration.
Promises of ‘levelling-up’ were dealt a blow when the eastern leg of the HS2 rail link from the West Midlands to Leeds were axed.
They were effectively put to bed when the “Northern Powerhouse” rail route from Leeds to Manchester via Bradford was also scrapped.
Until recently, many parts of the North were still being served by old Pacer trains that were brought in as a temporary solution to rolling stock shortages in the 1980s.
Old busses welded onto railway chassis carted people on vital commuter routes.
The notion that anything like that could ever happen in London is laughable.
And so it is in Scotland, where old InterCity 125s are considered ‘new investment’ in the country’s ageing transport network.
Asked whether Prime Ministers should be spending more time north of the border in a recent Spectator interview, Rishi Sunak readily agreed.
He said that he takes the Union “seriously” before going on to reference setting up a government office for the Treasury in Darlington, County Durham.
Of course, the Tory leadership candidate can be forgiven for not knowing a jot about Scotland, given that the country has been a black spot on the Conservative’s map since 1955 – 25 years prior to him being born.
The Scottish Unionist party (only becoming the Conservative party in Scotland in 1965) won a famous and overwhelming victory in that general election on the back of favourable unionist sentiment.
The welfare state had been established and became the anchor of the Anglo-Scottish union, while free access to English markets was also still a big factor.
But history turned under Margaret Thatcher, who oversaw the decimation of industry that was the lifeblood of many Scottish communities.
Equally fundamentally, state involvement and public spending became even more important to many Scots, and there was a view that Scandinavian-type social policies were favoured and neoliberal market economics were opposed.
It is ironic, therefore, that Truss is set to become the next Prime Minister of the UK on a ticket that contradicts all of those ideologies and beliefs.
Her own father is even said to be ‘distraught’ by his daughter’s reincarnation as a low-tax neoliberal who is a big fan of Thatcher.
When Truss described Sturgeon as someone who ought to be ignored, she wasn’t just referring to the First Minister.
She was referring to Scotland as a whole, and everything it embodies.
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