IRRESPECTIVE of what you think about the merits or otherwise of the Gender Recognition Bill, there is a substantial majority in support of it in the chamber and in a parliamentary democracy such as Scotland is supposed to be, the legislation should pass into law. However not for the first time, and no doubt not for the last, the Conservatives are demonstrating that they will only respect democracy when it enables them to get their own way.

Despite the parliamentary majority for the bill, the Conservatives were determined to obstruct its passage by obstructing, filibustering, and employing every underhand tactic at their disposal to make it runs out of time. These are, let us not forget, the very same people who constantly lecture the Scottish Government about “getting on with the day job”, but as strikes spread across the public sector and households struggle with soaring bills, the Tories are determined to take up as much time as possible and prevent the Scottish Government from addressing these vital issues.

READ MORE: Gender recognition reform PASSES in Holyrood after three-day debate

The Conservatives introduced a slew of spurious and trivial amendments, each of which they insisted be debated in full and put to a vote, and repeatedly raised points of order in order to draw out proceedings as long as possible. A bill that should have passed in an hour or two was still being debated after two long drawn-out days with MSPs sitting late into the night.

MSPs from other parties angrily accused the Conservatives of “sh*thousery” and insisted that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and his party were making a mockery of the Scottish Parliament. Others claimed that the Presiding Officer and her deputies were furious with Ross and the Conservatives.

Of course, we have seen the Conservatives trash democracy before with their refusal to accept that they campaigned in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections on the basis of preventing the parliament from having a majority in favour of another independence referendum. The Conservatives lost that election but have spent every day since denying that the current Scottish Government has a mandate for another independence referendum, citing no end of spurious reasons which justify, at least to their own satisfaction, why they feel entitled to run roughshod over the outcome of the most recent Holyrood elections.

The real issue here is not the Gender Recognition Bill, which the Conservatives are merely cynically using as a wedge issue to undermine the Scottish Government. A party that has promoted and defended the disgraceful “rape clause” has no real interest in defending women's rights, no matter what Douglas Ross and his colleagues claim this week. The real issue here is how the Conservatives are likely to behave with any measures brought before Holyrood to promote Scottish independence, another independence referendum, or forcing an early Holyrood election in order to use it as a de facto independence referendum.

Under those circumstances, the Conservatives would behave as they have been behaving this week, but on steroids. Unlike the Gender Recognition Bill, which is supported by most Labour MSPs and by the Lib Dems, the Tories would be able to count on the support and co-operation of the other anti-independence parties in their filibustering and obstructionist tactics. They would use every underhand tactic at their disposal to prevent Holyrood dissolving itself, even if there was no longer any functioning Scottish Government.

Rather, the Tories would welcome the opportunity for the imposition of direct rule from Westminster and would no doubt boycott any Holyrood election being used as a de facto independence referendum in order to strip it of legitimacy. They would then prevail upon their cronies in Westminster not to recognise the new parliament on the basis that it was elected to do something that the UK Supreme Court had ruled was outwith Holyrood's legal competence.

They would do all this with far more energy and enthusiasm than they have displayed in their blocking tactics this week because unlike women's rights, which the Tories are claiming to act to defend out of cynical convenience, they have an actual conviction in British nationalism and opposition to independence.