WATCHING the Conservative dog and pony show, SNP president, Michael Russell said: “What is clear from Liz Truss and her audience is that the UK Conservatives are now a profoundly anti-Scottish party. It is up to Tories in Scotland to prove they aren’t by publicly disagreeing with UK Tory leadership rhetoric.”

It is worth pointing out that Liz Truss may not merely be “anti-Scottish” as Russell says. She ­appears to be anti-Welsh as well. She claims the Labour First Minister of Wales, Mark ­Drakeford, is a “low-energy version of Jeremy Corbyn”.

As she denigrated Scotland’s First Minister and the nation’s democratic choices, the ­braying Tories in her audience screeched “build a wall!” – to her evident delight.

Alistair Campbell, no great supporter of ­independence, captured the mood rather well. “Fair to say the love of the golf club bores and right-wing rags is going to her head. The ­comment that she will ‘ignore’ Nicola Sturgeon and her dismissal of a serially elected leader as ‘an attention seeker’ is both mind-blowingly stupid as well as deeply offensive. It underlines everything wrong about this process.

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“But if she ends up as PM of the UK with a Union already under threat, I suspect she has weakened it further.

“Also, given her entire rise to this position has been founded on a belief that Instagram and ­media briefing are more important than ­policy and intellect, the ‘attention seeking’ jibe is about as rich as it gets. But the democratic point is overwhelming. Like her or not, Sturgeon has greater democratic legitimacy in her big toe than Truss will ever enjoy until she stands at a general election.”

Perhaps suspecting his background might not induce the same full-throated support enjoyed by his opponent, Rishi Sunak has lunged to the far right.

Sunak now champions the rhetoric of the Third Reich. He channelled this thinking in his demand that people who “vilify” Great Britain be targeted. This comes straight from the Nazi playbook of the 1930s. Hitler stated all who ­opposed the state would get special treatment.

You may recall the Nazi special ­treatment was meted out to trade unionists and ­communists then swiftly extended to others as the ­concentration camps swallowed up more and more enemies of the state. Others who felt the full effects of state-sponsored terror of this kind were those deemed infirm in body or mind. They were amongst the first to perish.

This extreme far right approach is already ­being tested here in shipping “undesirables” to Rwanda.

As The Guardian, again no supporter of ­independence, puts it. “Rishi Sunak promises new leadership for the UK, but that doesn’t seem to be attracting enough support from the Conservative ‘selectorate’, so this is what he is promising today: he will double down on the failing Prevent strategy, and target those who ‘vilify’ the United Kingdom.

“This would require some agility, so Sunak promises to widen further the government’s definition of extremism – criticised widely for being too expansive – to encompass those who ‘vilify our country’.

“And here’s the first question for Sunak? Would this include nationalists in Wales, ­Scotland and Northern Ireland? If not, why not?

“What about writers within our mainstream media, in publications such as the Spectator, whose apparent dislike of the tolerance and ­diversity that Britain represents seems evident in its pages?

“Would Sunak’s policy include those who have non-mainstream political views on our nation’s colonial history? What about those who hate some of our nation’s symbols, like the ­monarchy, the national anthem or even one of our national sports teams?”

Just in case anyone was in any doubt, Sunak aims to begin by targeting “lefty lawyers”.

As my friend, Richard Haviland, helpfully points out: vilify means to “speak or write about something in an abusively disparaging manner’. (And) groups potentially covered: minorities; ‘woke’ historians; independence movements; Remainers; and journalists”.

READ MORE: Eleanor Morton talks Scots language hate, being a woman online and viral whisky videos

In the real world, meantime, the Bank of ­England warns that on all plausible scenarios there will be “very high near-term inflation, a fall in GDP over the next year”. It says recession this year is baked in, unavoidable.

We know increasing energy costs hit low-income households hardest, but in the UK, according to the IMF, that impact will be the second biggest in the world, and the differential between the rich and the poor will also be the greatest.

Despite this, the UK has presently no ­functioning government. The deposed Prime Minister remains in office, but he’s also on ­holiday. The state is rudderless while heading into a devastating economic tsunami.

Little wonder that a growing number of Scots, previously and possibly still, unconvinced of the merits of Independence, are now saying; it’s time to go.