FOLLOWING the British Government's humiliating U-turn on the plan to axe the top 45p rate of income tax for the highest earners, Douglas Ross has been exposed as a complete irrelevance. Until this morning, the leader - at least for the time being - of the Scottish Tories had been hailing Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's tax-cutting mini-budget as a “bold plan” to turbocharge the economy and had been demanding, with an irate intensity, that the Scottish Government follow suit amidst dire warnings of wealthy Scottish residents packing up their AGAs and fleeing across the border.

Presumably, Ross will now be demanding, in equally irate fashion, that the Scottish Government keep the highest rate for top earners and praise Nicola Sturgeonfor her foresight in resisting his calls for her to axe the 45p rate.

But, of course, we all know he won't do that. He will be back to banging on about the ferries or spouting dubious tales of long waits in A&E and hoping we didn't notice that, only a couple of days ago, he was furiously demanding that the Scottish Government copy policies which tanked the pound, crashed the mortgage market, pushed pension funds to the brink of bankruptcy and forced the Bank of England to spend £65 billion in a desperate bid to avert catastrophe.

READ MORE: Liz Truss: Independence referendum shouldn't happen even if Supreme Court deems it legal

The Scottish Conservative shadow economy spokesperson Liz Smith had assured everybody that business leaders were right behind an idea that created economic havoc and could not even count on the support of Conservative MPs. Douglas Ross has now praised Kwasi Kwarteng for U-turning on his previous decision, as though Kwasi Kwarteng even knows or cares who Douglas Ross is.

We are now forced to the conclusion that the real reason Douglas Ross hates independence is that he has never had an independent thought in his life.

This episode exposes the complete irrelevance of the Scottish Conservatives who have been hung out to dry by the British Government's screeching U-turn. The Scottish Tories not only have zero influence on the policy-making of the British Government, but that government does not even pause to consider the Scottish Tories when it makes its decisions.

This abandoned 10-day experiment with tax cuts has so far cost the public purse £65bn. That figure does not include the extra costs which will be borne by all of us due to increased prices caused by the catastrophic fall in the value of the pound or the hikes in mortgage payments or rent costs that the forecast rise in interest rates will generate. To put this into context, it is approximately 200 times the very worst estimates of the cost to the public of the new ferries which the Tories and their pals in the Scottish press have been banging on about incessantly for months. And yet it is by no means the totality of the damage that this catastrophic and selfish Conservative government has created within just a few short weeks in office.

Over the weekend there were reports that there are two separate coup attempts brewing against Douglas Ross as desperate Scottish Conservatives contemplate the possibility of electoral annihilation and a British Government that is only turbocharging the case for Scottish independence.

Meanwhile, Ross has insisted that there should be no extra powers for Holyrood, possibly because a more powerful Scottish Parliament would merely be a more effective means of exposing him as an unprincipled charlatan. Mind you, the chances are he will change his mind.

When Ross was installed as the Scottish Tory leader in a putsch backed by Ruth Davidson there were confident predictions that he was going to hold the SNP's feet to the fire and destroy the “threat” of independence. Ross assured us he was on track to become the next first minister. But now he has been cruelly exposed by his own party as a political lightweight who twists and turns, meekly obeying the diktats of his London bosses no matter how humiliating or embarrassing.

How can the Scottish Conservatives expect voters to believe that they are an effective voice for Scotland within the UK when it is abundantly clear that their position does not even register with their Westminster colleagues? The Scottish Tories can't even stand up for themselves within the Conservative Party. There is no need for them to produce a manifesto for the next election. It will suffice for them to have a photo of Douglas Ross bending over with a "kick me" sign on the seat of his trousers.

The only real question left is whether it will be Ross or Truss who is forced out first by their own party. We already know that both are dismal failures who are utterly out of their depth.