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Ordinarily, it would be a rather pleasing experience to see Ruth Davidson done up like a kipper by Tory policy. It’s been a long time coming.

Not that I dislike her as a person, to be fair. Ruth seems to be the kind of solid, forthright woman who’s probably good fun on a night out and great playing defence in a hockey match (she’s got jolly hockey sticks by the cupboard full).

I’ve even seen her on the dance floor at a couple of official functions and, while she’s no Darcey Bussell, she’s got some moves.

Lots of women I know, instinctive anti- Tories I might add, have found themselves warming to Davidson. Not enough to vote for her, they would qualify, but she certainly seems different from the stuffy, old, public-school Conservatives we grew up learning to distrust. At least, she seemed different.

And that is the problem. She’s been fooling us for too long.

Davidson has been extremely effective at using her chummy persona as a disguise so that we see the person, not the policies, policies she supports, policies she will push through given the breath of a chance, no matter how repugnant.

We’re hurtling towards local council elections on Thursday and there are dire predictions of Tory council gains in

Scotland while Labour are facing “disaster”. And that’s bad enough news.

But we’ll ricochet straight into a general election a month later and another Conservative government is looking like a shoo-in.

Make no mistake, Davidson will no longer be able to play the jovial auntie if this revival of her party’s fortunes comes to pass, no matter how many silly photoshoots she uses to deflect attention from reality or how many tanks she jokingly attempts to commandeer. We’ll be coshed by those jolly hockey sticks.

We need to shake our heads clear and remember that she’s considered a trusted operator by those who brought us austerity, benefits sanctions, tax cuts for the rich, the bedroom tax and zero-hour contracts and that she’s gleefully backing Theresa May’s hard Brexit despite campaigning strongly for Remain.

So it should have been cheering to see her twist and turn like a herring on a hook last week, as Nicola Sturgeon and Kezia Dugdale wiped the deck with her shameful defence of that most shocking piece of

Tory punishment – the so-called “rape clause” on welfare payments.

But it wasn’t. There was no satisfaction to watch her feeble argument torn to shreds. As she squirmed and flapped, clumsily trying to suggest it was the Scottish Government’s responsibility to ditch the clause, stubbornly insisting that “difficult judgment calls” had to be made to balance the books, there was no sense of justice that at last she was being exposed for what she truly stood for.

Because at the heart of her contribution in the Scottish Parliament debate last week was such an awful betrayal of vulnerable women by a powerful woman, one who would have us believe she’s got women’s issues etched into her heart. As if.

It was hard to feel anything but sorrow and deep, deep disappointment.

We had, whether naively or foolishly, expected better from Davidson. Some might even have come close to believing her caring Conservative tosh. I trust they have seen the light.

Here’s the thing: I doubt she really believes it’s acceptable to make a woman prove her third child was conceived through rape before she can be entitled to tax credits for that child. I don’t think any female could find that acceptable.

But if she is prepared to sell us out on this most sensitive, poignant and painful issue, then what else would she do?

Use your vote wisely.