IT is rare that the lack of self-awareness from Tories surprises me, but David George Hamilton Frost is a special case, isn’t he?

A man famous for his botched handling of the Brexit negotiations which wiped 5% off our GDP and put peace in Northern Ireland at risk because Conservatives wanted fewer foreigners about the place. For him to say we need less devolution so that English MPs can decide how the affairs of Scotland are run is, quite frankly, astounding.

This is a column, not a book, so it is literally impossible to run through the litany of disasters which are utterly unique to Tory Britain, inflicted on Scotland because we are shackled to a failing state. Paralysed Britain, where they try to sell us red tape and bureaucracy at the ports as job creation and concentration camps in Rwanda as a fit for purpose immigration system.

There is no doubt in my mind that he says what many Westminster Tories think – that Scotland is little more than a local authority that has gotten too big for its boots and needs put back in its place. They think now is the perfect time to roll back on devolution and claw back the hard-won powers that the people of Scotland overwhelmingly support being wielded by our own parliament.

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His own column sounds more like the ravings of a man long since divorced from reality. His rantings on health and other matters neglect the fact that it is the policies of his own government that have caused the financial black hole we operate in, and despite that we still run them better than the Conservatives in England, or Labour in Wales for that matter.

Apparently, we don’t need taxation powers, but Liz Truss nearly doubled people’s mortgage payments with her use of taxation powers. If anything, it’s Westminster that requires some adult supervision. We will be happy to show them the way, as a friendly, independent neighbour.

Make no mistake, the minute we stop fighting for the powers of independence is the precise minute they will come for the powers of devolution. We are already seeing it with the use of the Section 35 order – a party that hasn’t won an election here in several generations dictating what our Parliament can do. I am glad that Humza Yousaf is standing up for our Parliament and our country by fighting this in the courts.

I am well aware that the topic itself has been contentious, mostly fuelled by a toxic media, but that is beside the point. The principle of the matter is simple, you either support the sovereignty of our democratically elected parliament or you don’t. Democracy isn’t about getting your own way, it’s about decisions being arrived at by a majority of those elected to do so and that decision being respected.

If you are only interested in that when it goes your way, then I’m afraid there is no getting away from this fact: you do not support independence and you don’t support democracy.

If you believe I’m wrong and you still class yourself as an independence supporter, my plea to you is this. If we allow this to go by unchallenged, they will step in, and they won’t chip away at our existing powers, they’ll run a bulldozer through them. And we will be so busy fighting to stop them, fighting to keep what devolution we once had, that one day we’ll look up and realise how long it’s been since any of us fought for independence. You will be putting the cause back years.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Scotland can wait any longer. We cannot afford to take our eye off the ball, so we press ahead, we make it clear that we will NOT take this lying down and we make it very much not worth their while even trying it again.

You know, I expect the attacks on our Parliament from Unionists of all stripes. Disgraced prime minister Boris Johnson called devolution “Tony Blair’s biggest mistake”. Not Iraq and all the subsequent death and destruction. Not degrading ATOS assessments. Simply democracy in Scotland. That, apparently, was the former Labour prime minister’s biggest mistake! So the supplication of forelock tuggers who would do away with the Scottish Parliament is unsurprising.

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What is surprising is that those who would accuse the SNP of not being strong enough on independence, of being too comfortable with devolution, are cheerleading this power grab like paid-up members of Better Together. Rather than recognise this for what it is – an attack on Scottish democracy – useful idiots and willing collaborators attack the only institution that will ever achieve Scottish independence, an SNP-led Scottish Government.

I’m not asking people to wheesht for indy – criticism and policy debates are necessary and open discussion should be welcomed. However, aligning yourself with the British state to block cross-party, democratic decisions just doesn’t square with supporting an independent Scotland where the decisions about us are taken by us.

If you are really so opposed to fighting the Section 35 order simply because you don’t agree with the democratically arrived at piece of legislation it seeks to overturn, at least step aside and let those of us who support independence, in practice and in principle, lead this movement unencumbered.