The notion of a Tory-free Scotland is, of course, a diversion. A pleasing diversion, no doubt; and all the more dangerous for that. The ENP leadership's hope and intention is that while people are distracted by the potential gratification of ousting the Tories, they will fail to notice that the SNP has no proposals for ending the Union. Scotland with no Tory MPs but without independence is no better off. A handful of Tory MPs is irrelevant. They are no obstacle to Scotland's cause. They are not the ones preventing that cause progressing. That would be the SNP leadership.
A Tory wipe-out would be a bit of entertaining political theatre and no more than that. It would have precisely no effect on the way Scotland is regarded and treated by the British state. Nor would the routing of the Tories in England. When the cheering dies down, nothing would be different.
The British state is a Tory state. It may be possible to vote them out of office. It is not possible to vote them out of power.
Forget those 'Scottish' Tory MPs! They are not important or even significant. They are detestable. But of no political consequence whatever.
There is, in fact, no party people in Scotland can vote for if they regard the constitutional issue as the first and most urgent priority. As we all should. Because without restoring Scotland's independence, there is no possibility of change. Whatever bad things you were anticipating if the Tories continued as the UK government, those bad things are going to happen even if they don't. Those bad things will happen to our nation even if there are no Tory MPs.
More importantly, those bad things will happen even if Scotland returns a majority of SNP candidates. Or a majority of nominally pro-independence candidates. Those bad things will happen even if Scotland returns ONLY nominally pro-independence candidates. This is the point that these parties hope you forget as you thrill to the appeal of giving the Tories a black eye. You'll get to feel good for a day. Then we will all pay a heavy price for that fleeting pleasure.
Until we #EndTheUnion, Scotland will always be no more than the amusing 'and finally' item at the end of the British election news.
That's the perspective no one will read about, even in the National. The lack of any sign of enthusiasm from the SNP government is emphasised by the lack of needful information contained within its series of Whitepapers.
Keith Brown 's comments in the National state the obvious. He says the SNP welcomes contributions on how to progress independence, suggesting he hasn't a scooby himself. If he wants people to vote SNP for a better future in an independent Scotland, then the SNP need to provide the evidence of what an independent Scotland would be like from a grass roots point of view. Pensions and currency would help for starters.
Tory ism is not important it is their other