IT can be tough to tell whether the Tories are being incompetent or malicious at times. Today, we witnessed another blatant example of this.

Theresa May visited Bridge of Weir with Scotland Secretary David Mundell, as she came north of the Border in an apparent bid to win over the public to her Brexit deal.

Bridge of Weir is in the UK Parliamentary constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire North. The MP for that area is the SNP's Gavin Newlands.

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Newlands was in for a bit of a shock though – as he saw Mundell sharing pictures from Bridge of Weir on Twitter.

"Joining ⁦@theresa_may⁩ on visit to @bowleather in Bridge of Weir. Fascinating to see how the leather is cut and get the chance to chat with staff about #Brexit. #BackTheBrexitDeal," the Scotland Secretary tweeted.

Newlands responded: "David any chance of you, or indeed the Prime Minister herself, notifying me that you are visiting my constituency? #brexit #BrexitChaos"

.David any chance of you, or indeed the Prime Minister herself, notifying me that you are visiting my constituency?#brexit #BrexitChaos — Gavin Newlands MP (@GavNewlandsSNP) November 28, 2018

By failing to inform the SNP MP of the visit to his constituency, Mundell and May were in breach of Commons convention.

This may seem like typical Tory contempt – why bother telling a Scottish MP that we're coming?

However, Mhairi Black added a twist to the tale that suggested it may simply be, once again, total ignorance of matters north of the Border.

The SNP MP explained: "I received an email from @theresa_may's office an hour or so before she arrived in Bridge of Weir, and haven't heard of her actually visiting anywhere in my constituency? Couldn't possibly be that the Prime Minister didn't know Renfrewshire has two constituencies?..."

I received an email from @theresa_may's office an hour or so before she arrived in Bridge of Weir, and haven't heard of her actually visiting anywhere in my constituency? Couldn't possibly be that the Prime Minister didn't know Renfrewshire has two constituencies?... — Mhairi Black MP (@MhairiBlack) November 28, 2018

Did the person who was meant to be responsible for this Google "Renfrewshire" and not think that there might be more than one result to look at?

If only this kind of ignorance about Scotland from the UK Government was surprising.

What will the punishment be for May and Mundell? A very, very minor and indirect rebuke from Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle – and that's perhaps overstating it.

That came after Newlands raised the issue in the Commons as a point of order.

He said: "The Speaker has ruled several times on the convention of members notifying other members visiting their constituency on official business that this applies to ministers as well.

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"Today I was deeply disappointed to find out that the Scottish Secretary and the Prime Minister, no less, have visited Bridge of Weir in my constituency, and I've yet to receive a notification.

"The Scottish Secretary found time to tweet about his visit to Bridge of Weir two hours ago, to which I replied asking for notification. He has not complied with that request. So clearly paragraph 10.10 of the ministerial code would apply in this case, Mr Deputy Speaker.

"The sad thing is that at Prime Minister’s Questions, in answering a question to myself, the Prime Minister said she knew nothing of the HELMS green deal issue which affects hundreds of people in my constituency. Had I been aware of the visit, I could have scheduled meetings with the constituents affected in which she could have learned a lot more about this terrible issue.

"Can you advise me what recourse a member has when the ministerial code is broken and ministers fail in their obligations to members and this house?"

Hoyle responded: "What I would say straight away – it is convention for any member going into another member’s to carry out political business, they should inform the member concerned, whether that be the Prime Minister or whoever.

"All I would say is, do the right thing by colleagues, and always inform the member you are going there. You don’t have to meet the member, but at least let’s keep with convention. That is the advice that I would give on this, and I’m sure that you will remind the Secretary of State when you catch up with him, and have a debrief on your constituency, I’m sure it’ll be a great pleasure for him to give you that debrief."

It's not been the most successful trip for May, has it? And that's saying something...