AFTER a disastrous few weeks which followed a calamitous few months and a truly terrible few years, it seems things just keep getting worse for the Conservative party.
Liz Truss gurned her way through a forgettable debut leader’s speech at conference on Wednesday and, in doing so, confirmed her party’s worst fears about her ability to lead.
It seems all is not well at the branch office either.
A new poll shows that the Scottish Tories are heading for "total wipe-out" at the next election. Only 15% of Scots said they’d back Douglas Ross’s party.
It is the party’s worst polling result in seven years. Which is remarkable when you think about it: like the Titanic failing a safety inspection after it has already sunk.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon condemns 'vile racists' who hurled abuse at primary school kids at FMQs
The Conservative Party haven’t won an election in Scotland in my lifetime. Yet Douglas Ross has managed to somehow make his party an even less attractive prospect to voters.
That noise you hear is Jackson Carlaw chuckling away merrily to himself.
Rumours are swirling that Douglas Ross is set to experience the same fate as his predecessor and be ousted as party leader.
At First Minister's Questions, he had the chance to show his party what they’d be missing if they gave him the chop.
He returned to the issue of accident and emergency waiting times.
Without cheating and checking on BBC iPlayer, can you guess how the exchange between the First Minister and Scottish Tory leader went?
There are no prizes for correct answers because they both said the same thing they always say.
Douglas Ross said the waiting times were an outrage, a scandal, and that the Scottish Government should be ashamed.
Nicola Sturgeon said there were challenges facing the health service but, despite those challenges, ours is actually the best performing in the UK.
She went on: "Frankly, it beggars belief that Douglas Ross stands here and talks about the NHS. I think his concern for the NHS today is even less convincing than it normally is, because he has spent much of the last week arguing for us to take millions of pounds and put that into the pockets of the richest people in our society, regardless of the impact that would have on our national health service."
READ MORE: Tories to return ZERO Scottish MPs at next election, poll finds
Douglas Ross hit back: "Please don’t ever question my commitment to our NHS when it was just over a year ago I had to follow my wife in an ambulance as she gave birth; when it was just over a year ago I had to see my infant on oxygen and fed through a tube in Aberdeen Sick Kids' Hospital.
"Don’t make political points out of this when politicians are raising serious issues."
In response, Nicola Sturgeon said she had "enormous sympathy" for the personal experience of Douglas Ross.
She went on: "But I am sorry, Presiding Officer, I do think it is reasonable to question the commitment to the NHS of anybody who argues for millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to go to cutting taxes for the richest in our society, rather than being invested in the NHS."
Anybody who is bored of the predictable exchanges between the two leaders can take comfort in the fact that there will probably be somebody new leading the Scottish Tories in the not too distant future.
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