SCOTLAND’S needs have completely dropped off the radar of both parties capable of winning power in the General Election.

Neither the Tories nor Labour have registered the slightest interest in doing anything to help voters north of the Border.

Douglas Ross yesterday delivered a slap in the face to everyone who voted for him in the Scottish elections by announcing he is standing to become an MP AS WELL as a list MSP. It would be a third job … he resumed a refereeing a football refereeing career in 2022.

Call me crazy but I think those who put their trust in an election candidate deserve an MP or MSP who serves their interests full-time – not one pulled in different directions by his responsibilities in two different parliaments. They are paid well enough to give their full attention to one job.

Ross obviously thought so too. That’s presumably why he promised to in 2022 to step down from Westminster. A promise he’s now ignored to put the boot into the man who had served as MP for the area since 2017 but was not selected because he had “health issues”.

Ross will take David Duguid’s place as Tory candidate for the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat, which many might see as a low blow against Duguid, who had said on social media that he had been approved by local members and was ready to stand.

READ MORE: The General Election date could impact result in Glasgow North

The disastrous poll figures for the Tories suggest Ross’s chances of victory are slim. However, the choice facing Scotland at this election isn’t just whether to kick the Tories out of Westminster – that decision has already been made. It’s whether

to roll back the years and once again place its trust in the Labour Party with an undeniable history of squandering that trust.

That’s a choice we cannot take seriously enough. There is a lot to lose.

Let’s be honest. The thought of seeing Rishi Sunak and his gang of wreckers walk back into power is a nightmare. But it’s not going to happen. There is not a single poll that suggests it’s possible.

Indeed, the most recent one suggests they are just two points ahead of Nigel Farage’s useless Reform party. That’s a dismal showing impossible to imagine anyone coming back from.

But what has the election so far taught us to expect if Keir Starmer is given the job of protecting Scotland’s interests in Westminster? It’s not an inspiring picture.

It’s hardly surprising that Sunak couldn’t bring himself to utter a single word about Scotland in what passed for a debate in the much-hyped leaders’ television debate this week. It’s a virtual certainty that the Conservatives’ seven MPs will be shown the door next month. The prospect of a Tory recovery north of the Border is slim enough to be non-existent.

But Starmer, if we are to believe most of the media, could considerably increase his tally of two MPs and much is made of a Labour revival in the face of a tough time for the SNP. There is only one possible explanation for his inability to fashion any message for Scottish voters. He does not care.

There is now more than a generation of voters who have no memory of the times when Scotland gave Labour the task of protecting the country against the ravages of the Tories.

Well, I CAN remember and it was a dismal failure. Towns and communities were left in ruins while Labour councils were powerless to put any real protections in place.

Despite that dreadful history, I can also remember the hope and optimism when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were voted in to bring an end to almost 30 years of Tory government malevolence, hope and optimism which were ripped to shreds on the battlefields of Iraq.

Is there anything to suggest we can expect more from Starmer? Certainly not in his approach to global politics. He remains a supporter of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which just yesterday added at least 30 to the death toll when displaced people were massacred while taking refuge at a UN school at Nuseirat. Labour’s thirst for war is unquenchable.

Nor is there any sign that Starmer is paying any heed to the economic damage wrought by Brexit – rejected, never forget, by 62% of Scottish voters in the EU referendum – when he consistently refuses to lift a finger to reverse a decision which has proved a disaster.

The Labour leader has also stripped his party of the left-wing policies he vowed to embrace when he replaced Jeremy Corbyn in 2020. Today, Corbyn has been kicked out of the Labour Party. Left-wing Faiza Shaheen is now standing as an independent after what she described as a “cruel and devastating” decision to deselect her as a Labour candidate. Farce surrounded Diane Abbott’s bid to become a candidate. Starmer has steered to the right on the economy and immigration and has flip-flopped on so many other issues that it is now impossible to know where he stands on many of them. But not, of course, on Scotland’s independence.

He remains unequivocally opposed to that and to giving Scots any say in whether they want to stay in the Union or not. On this issue at least it is impossible to discern any difference from Sunak’s position.

It should hardly be surprising, then, to see his ride roughshod over the views of the leader of his party in Scotland. Anas Sarwar wanted an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Starmer opposed it for months. He’s still on the fence about Britain’s sale of arms to Israel.

Sarwar voted in favour of Scottish Government plans for gender recognition reform. Starmer opposed them. Sarwar supported the devolution of employment law to Scotland. Sarwar opposed it and told Scottish MSPs to block it.

And this week Starmer supported Vaughan Gething, the Labour First Minister in Wales, after he lost a no-confidence vote. Sarwar called for Humza Yousaf’s resignation after the First Minister lost a no-confidence vote at Holyrood.

If Starmer pays no attention to his own party’s leader in Scotland he’s hardly likely to listen to Scottish views once he’s installed as the UK’s prime minister.

I’ve seen a lot of criticism of the SNP’s recent performance, even from independence supporters. It’s certainly true the party has not had its troubles to seek. Even its most fervent supporters would find it difficult to be enthused about its most recent party-political election broadcast.

But there is a big difference between arguing for an injection of energy and fresh ideas and suggesting the party no longer truly works for independence.

A belief in independence is surely fuelled by the belief that decisions on Scotland’s future would be better made by those who live here simply because they know about the country and will be directly affected by those decisions.

Whoever takes those decisions – and the political makeup of an independent Scottish Government – will be democratically decided by the Scottish electorate. It may consist of a majority of SNP politicians, it may not.

These facts seem so obvious they should barely merit being repeated but withdrawing support from the major party campaigning for independence because you are disillusioned by some actions seems to me counterproductive.

By all means take whatever action you believe might improve matters … but the eve of a General Election is not the best time to tear down any progress that has been made.

The result will not just be a “bloody nose for the SNP” but will cut the number of independence-supporting MPs as no other pro-indy party is likely to win SNP seats. That will signal a return to the grim days when Westminster can do whatever it likes and Scotland can do nothing but put up with it. If you truly think that will make no difference you just haven’t been paying attention.