NO sooner had the SNP’s referendum-less election manifesto appeared than a slew of reminders emerged showing why separation from this failed and fraudulent state is now fast becoming a moral imperative. Nicola Sturgeon, ever cautious and having taken advice from her Primark army of party advisors, opted against pledging a second independence referendum in the life of the next parliament.

In doing so, I sincerely hope that she hasn’t fallen for the dubious wisdom of some in her party: that there needs to be a year of polls showing 60 per cent support for independence before she can move on it.

This is nonsense and is coming from people inside the party who are less committed to Scottish independence than they are to the superannuated lifestyle to which they have become accustomed these last few gilded years. It’s highly unlikely that support for independence will ever reach 60 per cent prior to a second referendum and would certainly not be carried for a year. Instead she ought to remember that, in the space of 18 months, a chaotic Yes campaign, lacking a compelling economic case reduced the No lead by around 50 per cent. She might also ponder for how long the idea of independence in an increasingly inter-connected world can remain viable.

The First Minister has, once more, stated that a vote to leave the European Union in June against the wishes of the Scottish people would trigger a second referendum, but several events this week, north and south of the Border, have begun to arrange themselves in a stellar constellation that spells T-A-X-I F-O-R S-C-O-T-L-A-N-D R-A-P-I-D. The Tories who voted on Monday night to turn Britain’s face against giving shelter to an extra 3,000 unaccompanied children currently living in squalor in European refugee camps was wicked beyond compare. Even by the standards of a party that deems a human being to be worthless unless he can turn a profit the conduct of their MPs in Monday night’s vote was unforgivable.

Earlier that day the full extent of the UK Government’s betrayal of shipworkers at Scotstoun and Govan was unfolding. These workers were preparing to build the eight Type-26 frigates and two offshore patrol vessels which had been pledged by the Tories and then deployed as a weapon by all the Unionist parties during the referendum campaign.

We need the broad shoulders of the UK to protect our heavy industries, said Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling. “Only the UK can protect jobs and pensions.” I personally witnessed Brown bellow this in front of a fawning and adoring Labour gathering in Cumbernauld hosted by the sitting MP Gregg McClymont during the referendum campaign. Where are the broad shoulders now?

The UK Government turned its back as England’s last two steel plants faced closure in contrast to their mad dash 15 years ago to make some farmers millionaires following a foot-and-mouth crisis that they helped to create. Now 800 ship-building jobs on the Clyde are at risk as the Government considers plans to delay building and outsource work to English yards as a cost-cutting exercise.

And just what has the broad-shouldered UK Government done to mitigate the effects of the £800 billion pension black hole that has emerged? Meanwhile Brown, Darling and McClymont, having helped destroy the Labour Party by doing the Tories’ bidding during the independence referendum, have all walked into jobs advising very rich people how to, ahem … make the most of all their assets as their party faces annihilation in Scotland as a result of their actions.

And what of the jobs and pensions of the BHS workers, following the collapse this week of the distressed High Street clothing chain? This is what a leader in our sister paper The Herald had to say yesterday about the stewardship of BHS by the retail billionaire Sir Philip Green: “… after acquiring the company for what looked like a bargain-basement price in 2000, it was loaded with debt while paying out millions to him [Green] and his family in dividends and millions more in rent to Sir Philip’s other companies. Infamously, a pension fund that was in surplus when Sir Philip took over is also now in deficit to the tune of £571 million.”

This is what unchecked and unregulated capitalism looks like, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a system not to create jobs but to make as much wealth as possible in as little time as possible by employing the fewest possible people on the lowest wages possible and with as little scrutiny as possible by Government. Under UK Tory administrations this is exactly what happens.

THIS is also one of the reasons why we belong to the European Union despite its flaws and undemocratic institutions. Remaining within the EU guarantees us the protection of the European Convention on Human Rights. Without this, the workers at Scotstoun, Govan and BHS would have been tossed aside a while ago with no continuity of employment or pension rights. They would have been denied the opportunity to stand up for themselves by joining a trade union. Yet Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary, enchanted the scarecrow faction of her party yesterday when she claimed that Britain could quit the ECHR while remaining in the EU. Aye right, Theresa …

I’ll leave aside David Cameron’s pledge to make English Votes for English Laws a few hours after he had seen his plan to pull the wool over the eyes of Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown come together on the morning of September 19, 2014. Or the worthless Smith Commission which has given Scotland a small portion of tax powers available to the rest of the UK.

The next time Ruth Davidson or any of her acolytes turn up on your doorstep over these next two weeks, just ask them where they stand on any or all of the above. Davidson is every bit as culpable and ravenous in her true-blue Toryism as the Bullingdon Boys who run this country for their own enrichment and gratification.

What we have witnessed over these past few days is the moral case for Scottish independence being made by an immoral Government.