Our Politics newsletter is now daily. Join thousands of others and get the latest Scottish politics news sent straight to your inbox. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Ruth Davidson has more faces than a shop full of clocks.

The Scottish Tory leader is constantly complaining about cyber abuse directed at her and her supporters.

There’s nothing wrong with that – online vitriol is poisoning Scottish politics and must be stamped out wherever it occurs.

Unfortunately, Davidson has shown herself to be brilliant at spotting a mote in her

neighbour’s eye but completely useless at dealing with the beam in her own.

The online conduct of Stirling councillors Alistair Majury and Robert Davies has been nothing short of disgraceful.

The pair were both elected in May as part of the indyref2-inspired Tory surge.

At the time, the Record warned unionists lending the Conservatives that their vote to send Nicola Sturgeon a message was playing with fire. Time has proved us right.

Now Stirling is lumbered with councillors with a history of sectarianism and racism.

Majury used the despicable term “tarrier” in one of his tweets, while Davies made the type of racist jokes not even Bernard Manning would have bothered with.

It’s a dismal state of affairs that these characters will now have real influence over local government in Stirling.

Meanwhile, the way Davidson dealt with it has shown a complete lack of leadership.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Majury and Davies should never have made it through vetting but once their online record emerged, they should have been kicked out for good. Instead, they were given the lightest slap on the wrists.

What type of message does that send to ethnic minorities or Catholics?

Incredibly, while all this was unfolding yesterday, Davidson was gracing the pages of a Tory newspaper spouting off about Nicola Sturgeon’s apparently “nasty” nationalism.

Her time would have been much better spent getting her own house in order.

Big Ben bonkers

It’s been described as the end of democracy, a day of national trauma.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

But it’s not Donald Trump’s casual green light for racist violence. Neither is it the threat of nuclear war with North Korea.

It’s not even about Brexit.

Yesterday, crowds of people, including MPs who should know better, gathered to listen to Big Ben before the 159-year-old bell falls silent during repair works.

If it was in Edinburgh during the Fringe, this would be considered a deeply satirical piece of performance art. But it wasn’t. People in high places really are outraged.

In short, a lot of people with odd priorities have gathered in London for one last “bong”.

What exactly are they smoking there?

A real lifesaver

(Image: Moira Kerr)

GP and lifeboat crew member Colin Wilson has helped save lives on land and sea.

In three decades, he’s been called out with Oban RNLI more than 600 times.

It’s another reminder that the service is, remarkably, a charity – and they deserve as much support as they can get.