This Conservative charade spells bad news for the whole of Scotland

misapprehension they have what it takes to lead a country.

Last month, he wrote a pathetic op-ed for The Sunday Telegraph, stating: ‘I’m a campaigner and a doer – and I will deliver as the next PM’. Shapps could not even amass the 20 letters of support from colleagues required to enter the contest. As we Dundonians say:

“Eh, guid ane!” Nevertheless, by this time next month, we will know if it will be ‘Liz for Leader’ or if the country is ‘Ready for Rishi’. With 20,000 willing volunteers and a launch several months in the making in the aftermath of a carefully timed resignation, Sunak was odds-on for victory a few weeks ago.

A recent YouGov poll, however, put Truss in a 24-point lead among party members.

With the endorsements of Boris Johnson’s current and first chancellors as well as 21 senior former and sitting Cabinet ministers only in the last few days, momentum is with her. Having watched four of the debates and lost several hours I will never again regain, it is clear to which quadrants each of the candidates are appealing.

Every time they face off on the economy, Truss exposes her fiscal illiteracy while Sunak leans into fiscal conservatism by stating we cannot add more borrowing to the nation’s credit card, which always elicits a ripple of applause. Tory critics will question, however, why he has not shown the same steel in response to Boris’s demands, which has seen the UK debt balloon to £2.4 trillion.

Truss has set out her stall as the tax-cutting candidate, promising to fend off a Rishi recession, overturn Boris’s national insurance increases, cancelling corporation tax rises and removing green energy levies by spreading the Covid debt. It is utter horse manure, as anyone with half an economic antenna knows.

Firstly, tax cuts do not fend off recessions and, secondly, Bailey’s announcement last week projected £40 billion in lost revenue, which blows a gaping hole in her kitty for tax cuts.

The reason for my cynical scepticism is thus – whether

Liz or Rishi succeed, two legacy candidates telling us what they would do differently translates as continuity Conservativism, an eventual reckoning with economic reality upon becoming leader will mean Austerity

2.0 and decrying Scotland’s democratically elected first minister, whether Truss likes her or not, is bad news for Scotland, given we did not even elicit even a reference in the first two televised leadership debates.

Tory leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are both double trouble for this country.