There were two lacklustre failures last week ...

IT had the draw of a famous name, but instead was a lacklustre gathering which failed to deliver.

We’re not talking about the nowfamous failed “Willy Wonka” experience in Glasgow which has made headlines around the world, of course, but the Scottish Tory Party conference.

There were the inevitable comparisons when journalists turning up at the event on Friday in Aberdeen noted a bare entrance hall was giving off “Willy Wonka vibes”.

But that wasn’t the end of it all.

Much like an AI-generated Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak made a brief appearance to trumpet what he billed as the achievements of his government and come up with some ramblings about the “nationalist desire to set Scots against the English”.

Meanwhile the reality of what the polls were saying seemed to fail to dent the fantasy worlds of Tory politicians.

A poll presented at a fringe event at the Scottish Tory conference found the party faces losing as much as 58% of their voters in Scotland from 2019 and 2021 at the next election.

And that came in the wake of a Survation poll which found support for the Scottish Tories had dropped to 15% – a level last seen in the wake of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget in September 2022.

Yet Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told journalists that his party is going to “have a good election” and will make gains “at the expense of the SNP”.

And Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove told the conference that “tens of thousands of Scots” could switch from supporting the SNP to the Tories in the forthcoming General Election.

The failed Willy Wonka experience has at least provided some entertainment around the globe after going viral.

But nearly a decade and a half of the Tories in charge – with the toxic policies around austerity, Brexit and migrant “crises” – has been no laughing matter.

And it proves why Scotland has to continue to seek independence – and get rid of Westminster once and for all.