by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Scottish independence won’t be won at Westminster, but it might be won because of Westminster. In particular, the actions and attitudes of the Labour and Tory MPs elected by Scottish voters at the last General Election should give us some indication of where Scotland stands in this so-called Union of Equals.

The Scottish Labour MPs haven’t done much at all so far, and their inaction has been overshadowed by the very noticeable actions of their Tory counterparts. These are the 13 Tory MPs who allegedly hold significant power – power which makes Colonel Davidson even more important than she thought she was previously.

So what have they done?

Well, they’ve voted to maintain the cap on Public Sector Wages while criticising the Scottish Government for maintaining the cap on Public Sector wages in Scotland even though the Scottish Government has said it will abandon that cap. Hmm. Not a great start.

Even less worthy of respect was Douglas Ross, Tory MP for Moray, who made great play of his support for the WASPI campaign during his bid for election, but who abandoned all pretence by voting against proposals to help the affected women when it came to a vote in the Commons. Some cynical observers might view this rapid abandonment of election pledges as being tantamount to him having lied to his constituents. Either that or he simply obeyed his London masters because that’s what Scottish Tories do.

What else have the 13 Scottish Tories been up to? It can’t all be like this, can it?

Well, there was a debate in the Commons on the subject of seasonal workers in the Agricultural industry. Seeing as this is a sector which is important in the North-East of Scotland where the bulk of the Tory MPs were elected, you’d think they would be right in there, defending the interests of their constituents. But, according to Twitter comments from SNP MPs, not a single one of the 13 Tory MPs turned up. Perhaps they were too busy doing their day job. Oh, hang on, their day job is to represent their constituents at Westminster. Still, at least it saved them the embarrassment of copying Douglas Ross’s U-turn.

To be fair, one Scottish Tory MP did turn up for a later debate. Luke Graham, NP for Ochil & South Perthshire, spoke in a debate on communications and Broadband. Not only was he present, he actively participated. He stood up and denounced the SNP MPs for not bothering to attend such an important debate. This would have been a telling point had the Speaker not reminded him that the debate was in relation to England only, so there was no point in any Scottish MP being there. Mr Graham was therefore speaking in a debate on which he would not be permitted to vote by dint of being a Scottish MP. The word "competence" doesn’t spring to mind, does it?

The word, "Truthful" isn’t really applicable to the Scottish Tories either. Despite all the loud promises from David Mundell, Colonel Davidson and her MPs, publication of the Repeal Bill has shown that no new powers will be coming to Scotland once the UK leaves the EU. Is anyone really surprised?

Having said all that, this is not intended solely as a Tory-bashing article. It might be easy to make such claims because the Tories demonstrate time and time again that they represent themselves rather than their constituents, but such whataboutery is admittedly rather petty when compared to the wider issue of Scottish independence.

It is not surprising that the SNP failed to match the spectacular wins of the 2015 General Election, but one thing must by now be amply clear to all Scottish voters. Even if we returned 59 SNP MPs, they would be unable to achieve very much in practical terms because they would always be outvoted by the Unionist Parties. But what they would achieve would be to deny those 59 seats to the Scottish Labour and Tory MPs who will always defer to the wishes of their Westminster masters rather than stand up for Scotland. It is still possible that there might be another General Election soon, so the SNP really need to be a lot better prepared for it than they were last time. If it does happen, then the Scottish electorate need to know that voting in Labour and Tory MPs only helps Westminster – it does not help Scotland.