THE former Clinton adviser Paul Begala once described politics as “showbusiness for ugly people” – but if that is a fault, it lies with the media as much as politicians.

Most of the coverage of the decline and fall of Liz Truss and the emergence of Rishi Sunak was superficial and analysis-free.

The fact that the worst Secretary of State for Scotland in history has sailed through three administrations without making the slightest positive mark on the country he is meant to serve should be the subject of withering scorn but got hardly a mention.

The re-emergence of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary is being treated as a story about internal Tory tensions, not the matter of shame and horror it should be given her extreme right-wing views on migration, civil liberties, human rights and welfare. Nobody seems to care that Michael Gove is the most sleekitly destructive politician of the entire pack and the one most hostile to Scottish democratic interests, and nobody seems to remember that Dominic Raab not only holidayed while Kabul fell but was also forced to admit that he had never read the Good Friday Agreement, even though, as Brexit secretary, he was dealing day in and day out with Northern Ireland.

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The fact these people were in government once is bad enough, particularly given that Scotland never voted for them and never would. The fact they have been put back in government despite their track record adds insult to injury.

The UK’s dangerous rightward march continues, yet “who’s up and who’s down” remains the journalistic discourse, window dressed with the supposed thrill of having yet another new Prime Minister.

In reality, the most pressing issue for Scotland at this critical juncture must be what our country needs and who will provide it.

Sunak cannot do so. Indeed, unless – and until – he acknowledges that among the root causes of the current extremely challenging situation is the folly of Brexit, then it is, by definition, impossible for him to even start to tackle the problems we are all faced with.

The same goes for Keir Starmer, whose over-cautious and principle-free calculation about backing Brexit and claiming that it can be made to work is now plain for everyone to see, even though he can’t see it himself.

Ever since the Brexit referendum in 2016, it has been clear that withdrawing from the EU and – particularly from the single market and customs union – was going to be disastrous for Scotland’s (and the UK’s ) economy and society.

That is why it took Theresa May six months to decide whether or not to take those steps, and even in her Lancaster House speech of January 2017, she anticipated a less than full withdrawal from both, no matter her rhetoric.

Yet the zealots and xenophobes of Ukip and then the Brexit Party eventually made the Conservative government into a willing instrument of their prejudices. The result was inevitable and anticipated in the very first Scottish Government publication on Scotland’s Place in Europe in December 2016 and by many other analyses since.

The situation has, of course, been made worse by the pandemic and now by the war in Ukraine. The cost of climate change is also in the mix, as is the extra burden caused by the disastrous Truss experiment, which resulted in the most expensive and self-harming six weeks in British economic history – an experiment, of course, which the Scottish Tories demanded the SNP Scottish Government should implement with enthusiasm.

Yet the UK solution now being proposed is one which has already failed. The years of austerity are a contributory factor to the economic Armageddon we now face, and more austerity will just create more suffering without any beneficial effect.

The significant new Scottish think tank The Bottom Line has as one of its key figures my good friend Roger Mullin, who is a long-term nationalist, an experienced economic consultant, a former SNP office bearer and a former MP. It has this week published a very simple set of suggestions which would start to solve Scottish economic problems.

Clearly identifying the current crisis as having been made at Westminster, The Bottom Line makes three recommendations – allowing the immigration the economy needs, rejoining the European single market and incentivising innovation and entrepreneurialism.

It points out that these are solutions that have worked and are working elsewhere but also concludes that no UK Government of whatever hue would be prepared to implement them because they require the current hard Brexit to be abandoned. They would mean an acceptance of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and agreement to the four freedoms – people, goods, capital and services.

Consequently, the only way the Scottish economy can be rebuilt is by independence, using what the think tank calls the “agency” that Scotland must recover in order to make its way in the world, preferably as a full member of the EU.

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The Scottish Tory constitution spokesperson, Donald Cameron, this week claimed that in pursuing independence, the Scottish Government was “putting the economy at risk” while the new Tory Prime Minister was again arguing that “this is not the time”.

Both are absolutely and dangerously wrong. The Scottish economy has been trashed and is at continuing risk because we are part of the UK which wilfully imposes useless, failed solutions on us.

Moreover, now is precisely the time to make the change – indeed, if we don’t do so, it is certain that our economy, our standard of living and our society will continue to decline.

The next 12 months will be crucial. We must continue to build the independence case, prepare for either a referendum or an election and demonstrate again and again to the unconvinced that the only way out of the crisis is by choosing the normality of independence.

The media may wish it all to be Westminster showbusiness as usual. Scotland needs a different approach.