The National:

NICOLA Sturgeon is shaking in her boots at the prospect of Ruth Davidson returning to frontline politics, apparently.

The news – if it can be called that – comes from the baroness’s appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Davidson told an audience that her time in “elected politics” was over, but that her days of meddling in elected politics were far from it.

She said she would “always” return to campaign against indyref2 and for the Union – even if no one asked her to.

That pretty standard fare from the die-hard Conservative has been blown out of all proportion by some in the media.

Nicola Sturgeon rocked as Ruth Davidson vows politics return to derail IndyRef2 plot,” one publication told us.

“I will fight for my country”, another quoted the former Scottish Tory leader as saying, with more than one outlet reporting that a return would be "sensational".

Following up on the hype, political adviser Nick Cook, whose CV includes advising Davidson herself, claimed on GB News that her return would be “terrible news for the SNP fundamentally”.

But he wasn’t done there.

“I think there’s a desire, not just in Scotland but across the UK, for Ruth to return to frontline politics,” he said.

We’ll have to take his word for that.

The National:

Cook (above) further claimed that the pro-independence Scottish Government had wanted nothing more than the constitutional “battle” to be Nicola Sturgeon vs Boris Johnson.

“For a whole host of reasons … that’s not going to be the fight,” he said.

Reasons such as Johnson being ousted from power by his own party when the scandals and lies piled too high for even the Tories to take? Odd that Cook skimmed over that.

As the GB News interview went on, the ticker on the bottom informed viewers: “Ruth Davidson to lead pro-Union campaign if IndyRef2 happens.”

Does the Unionist side really not have anyone else?

And all this seems to forget that Davidson played a very prominent role in the Scottish Tories Holyrood election campaign in 2021, where the party flatlined.

Matching 2016's result and winning 31 seats was seen as something of a win for the party’s actual leader – Douglas Ross – as he was the only Unionist party boss not to see their representation decrease.

Unionists will need more than that if they want to win indyref2.