The National:

THE Tories seem to have a new strategy to save the Union – by highlighting how nobody wants it.

The leader of the Scottish Tories took the media by surprise with his conference speech this afternoon, in which he attacked “defeatism and disinterest” towards the Union among his Westminster colleagues.

He was extremely critical of London-based Tories, asking them to consider which “side” they are on and accusing them of making the case for independence better than the SNP.

READ MORE: Tory conference: Douglas Ross takes aim at colleagues' 'disinterest' in the Union

But Ross’s social media strategy doesn’t seem to have taken into account that not everybody was keeping up with his speech. His team tweeted out snippets with no context – resulting in one pretty entertaining post.

The Moray MP posted his glossy headshot alongside the quote: “Defeatism and disinterest towards the future of the Union is rife.”

Now if you’d seen the speech – which you only would have if you had special log-in details for the conference as a Tory member or a journalist – you’d know Ross was aiming this comment at Tories south of the Border who he feels aren’t working hard enough to keep the four nations together.

But without that all-important bit of context, it just looks like Ross is pointing out what us independence supporters already know too well: Scotland wants out, and people living in England don’t seem that bothered about us sticking around anymore. In that case, why stay in the bad marriage?

The last thing anyone expected from Ross’s first conference speech as Scottish Tory boss would be for him to make the case for independence, but hey – it’s 2020. Nothing is surprising anymore.