The National:

IT'S not been a great few days for Scottish Tory MSP Maurice Golden. 

The MSP for the West of Scotland region found himself at the centre of savage Twitter storm after posting a tweet comparing SNP tactics to "stuff of banana republics". 

The post received 186 retweets but a whopping 870 replies - now that's a classic example of a good ratio. 

The tweet read: "The SNP can’t handle the fact that, for all their flag waving, Scotland just doesn’t want what they’re selling. So they have to resort to threatening to impose independence on Scotland - it’s the stuff of banana republics."

Twitter users were quick to point out what THEY saw as being akin to banana republics. 

Some referenced the Tories current platform of outright denying Scotland the option of a second independence referendum.

 Others questioned whether he truly believed the Tories were selling something better.

But the whole thing was made worse when Golden popped up on Good Morning Scotland for an interview on whether indyref2 should be allowed or not. 

Earlier in the show, SNP MP Angus MacNeil had made the case for the SNP using an election as a mandate for independence, then negotiating on the issue from there. 

And while Golden was certainly very angry about all this, he didn't do so well when he tried to argue his point, floundering throughout the conversation. 

“Well I think it’s completely irresponsible for the SNP to suggest that you can conflate one issue on an election with tearing apart our precious Union and I also think that the SNP should be mature and responsible working within the political system we have, both in Holyrood and Westminster.

“If it’s a manifesto commitment to bring forward an independence referendum than that’s quite a different matter, but what Angus MacNeil seems to be suggesting is the SNP can take a unilateral decision to begin negotiations on independence and that’s clearly not in the rule of law."

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The interviewer pointed out that there is a majority for independence in the Parliament, asking "shouldn't the Parliament's will prevail?"

“Well the Parliament in Scotland must work with the Parliament that governs the entire United Kingdom. That’s the system that the SNP and all the major parties in Scotland agreed with and that’s the current state of play and I think the SNP should be focusing on the domestic agenda, saving our NHS and improving our education, rather than bringing up constitutional grievance.”

"It can do both though? It can do more than one thing at a time," the interviewer pointed out. 

Later, Golden was asked about the material change in circumstances since 2014 - and that's when he really struggled.

"In 2014 people were told that the only way to stay in the EU was to vote against independence. Having voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, we’re leaving according to the respective leaders of your party – so the circumstances have changed haven’t they. Shouldn’t this be a way of testing what the electorate now thinks?" The interviewer asked.

Golden replied: "No. The electorate were promised that the referendum would last for a generation, the economic circumstances surrounding that referendum – and the sense that Scotland is far stronger as part of the Union – still remains the case today as they did in 2014 and therefore the referendum then is just as valid as it was."

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Again asking about the change, the interviewer said: "But there has been a material change hasn’t there, because in 2014 people were told the only way to stay in the EU was to vote against independence? What do you say to those people now?"

"I would say that the case for the Union is just as strong as in 2014."

"So why not test it then?"

Golden responded: "Because we cannot have a referenda after referenda, you could test the views … and one thing that we have learnt from both referenda is that it drives people to extremes, it leads to individuals not concerning themselves with the domestic agenda, and that is a big diversion."

Note to Scottish Tories: maybe start looking for some actual REASONS we are meant to want to stay in the Union? Amazingly, this isn't really convincing us ...