ON the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington reputedly muttered to himself after his surveying his own troops, “I don’t know about the enemy but they sure scare the hell out of me”.

I’m sure a similar thought must be running through the heads of many who voted No in the last independence referendum when they see the Tory party in full flow.

Some of the more intelligent supporters of the United Kingdom must be ruing the day back in 2016 when the Tories scraped into second place in Holyrood just ahead of Labour.

Yes, they came a million votes behind the SNP. And yes, their share of the vote was even lower than the worst result achieved by Margaret Thatcher in 1987 – when she plumbed the lowest depths of unpopularity in Scotland of any Tory leader for three-quarters of a century.

These facts have been conveniently swept under the carpet by Ruth Davidson’s media fan club. Believing her own press, she is now predicting that she will be a future First Minister. If that’s the case, then I’m the next Director General of the CBI.

But flights of fantasy aside, the disintegration of Labour means that a river of royal blue now separates the Yes and No in the battle for Scotland’s soul. Jeremy Corbyn and Kezia Dugdale, or their successors if they’re no longer around, may try and muddy these waters. But much more clearly even than in 2014, indyref2 will be a stark choice between a hard-right Tory Britain for a decade if not a generation to come, or a Scotland headed off in the opposite direction politically.

For a long time, we had almost forgotten what the Tory party was. When I was in the Scottish Parliament, characters like Annabel Goldie and Lord James Douglas Hamilton went out of their way to be friendly even to the dyed-in-the-wool Clydeside reds of the SSP. Far from power, they seemed harmless enough – especially at a time when Tony Blair seemed intent on detonating World War Three.

This weekend, however, should remind us that this is not just a party of eccentric aristocrats or affable ladies from Morningside. This is the party that supported apartheid in South Africa almost until the dying days of the white supremacist regime in Pretoria, and whose student members paraded around universities wearing Hang Nelson Mandela stickers. And this, by the way, is the party that labels independence supporters striving for national equality as racist.

It’s also the party that befriended one of the world’s most infamous terrorists: General Augusto Pinochet. He orchestrated the destruction of a democratically elected government, ordered mass murder of his political opponents and turned football stadiums into torture camps.

When Tory politicians, speaking with jorries in their mooths, attack the independence movement as divisive, we might want to bear in mind that inner-city districts of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol went up in flames as riots spread through the streets in response to the policies of this party.

And remember that 11,000 miners were arrested during mass disturbances in previously peaceful mining villages as result of a fanatical Tory crusade to destroy a trade union. Most lost their jobs, and hundreds of previously law-abiding citizens were jailed.

Then there was the Poll Tax. That probably wasn’t so divisive in Scotland, come to think of it, because pretty much the whole country was united against this blatant smash-and-grab raid by the rich against the poor. But it led to mass civil disobedience, with a million in Scotland refusing, and violent riots on the streets of London.

No doubt I’ll be accused by some of raking up the past. But history matters. The past is a window into the future. If I apply for a job, I have to submit a CV explaining my previous track record.

But let’s just leave the past aside for now and talk about the present. Ruth Davidson’s jolly, right-on liberal leadership style is an attempt to mask the real nature of heartless, ruthless Toryism.

Let’s talk about cuts to tax credits and work allowances, for example. This week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that the number of children living in poverty will rise by almost a million over the next five years because of UK Government cuts. By 2022, 36 per cent – more than one in three – children in the UK will be living in poverty.

And let’s talk about Brexit – the result of a referendum called by David Cameron to appease the hard-line racist right within his own party. It’s since split England and Wales down the middle, provoked generalised hostility in Scotland and threatened to hurl Ireland back into the dark days of the Troubles. And it’s left millions of EU citizens in the UK, and millions of UK citizens in Europe, in fear of the future.

“Where there is discord may we bring harmony,” said Margaret Thatcher on the steps of 10 Downing Street when she was elected in 1979, quoting the words of St Francis of Assisi. And we all know what happened next. So when we are treated to condescending lectures, homilies and platitudes from the likes of Theresa May, David Mundell and Ruth Davidson, let’s treat them with the disdain they deserve.

The founder of the Labour Party Keir Hardie used to say that when you’re under attack from the Tory press, you know you’re doing something right. And when the independence movement today attracts such venomous criticism from the party of Margaret Thatcher, Enoch Powell, Norman Tebbit and the Monday Club, we should just be thankful we’re on the right side of history.