If the Conservative government in Westminster was a dog, it would have been despatched by any decent, caring vet by now.
It is limping along, barely functioning, fit for nothing but snarling and snapping because it’s so old, so lame and so tired.
Time to put this sad bunch out their collective misery – which is why Prime Minister Rishi Sunak needs to stop faffing around and call a general election now.
I mean, what is the point of this grizzly crew clinging on? Other than merely to prove what we already know – they are interested in power for power’s sake, for enriching themselves and their mates.
They give not a jot that, under their watch, the gap between rich and poor has widened to a gulf that has taken on abyss-like status. They are positively gleeful over starving the National Health Service of cash so they can manufacture a funding crisis and claim the NHS, which they broke, can only be fixed by allowing it to be privatised.
They have engineered a Brexit so painful and damaging that future historians will study this era of waste and decay in astonishment, adding a footnote of: “WTF?”
I am not alone in my opinion that the Tories need to go, and to go now. Our friends south of the border have just made that abundantly clear by not so much saying no to the Tories at their local elections as screaming: “For pity’s sake, just get out!”
And, still, they hang on.
Keir Starmer is an empty echo chamber
The fear is that in the dying months of their regime, the current incumbents will lurch even further to the right – believe me, it’s possible – while exercising a scorched-earth policy to ensure the next government is left with a country so trashed it can’t be made good for generations.
If Sunak is so thrawn and so blind to the mood music of voters, we will just have to grimace and bear it up until the last possible moment, before he is crowbarred out of number 10.
Not, of course, that I have much faith in who will follow. Sir Keir Starmer is an empty echo chamber, offering pat words and no promises that might come back and bite him on the backside.
Personally, I would welcome Labour in government in the UK for one simple reason. It will demonstrate beyond doubt that, when it comes to Scotland, it doesn’t matter what colour of rosette the powerbrokers are wearing; Westminster will still treat our nation with contempt.
They will still take our resources and give us back crumbs, telling us whining Jocks to just be grateful for their generosity.
A Scottish parliament is still our best hope for a prosperous, forward-looking, self-sufficient and proud nation
Five years of that will be an eye-opener – one that will hopefully make people realise that, for all its ills and travails at the moment, a Scottish parliament is still our best hope for a prosperous, forward-looking, self-sufficient and proud nation. An independent one.
So, yes, I will be looking forward to casting my vote in the upcoming UK general election – and hoping with all my heart it will be the last time I have to.
Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired
Conversation