In the UK’s political battleground, truth may well be the first casualty but a close second is the ancient and beautiful English language. In the world of politics, our language becomes a shallow and arid medium where meaning and nuance flee in the face of meaningless and vacuous slogans.

Over the course of the last two general elections in Scotland, each of the main political parties has advanced the notion that they, and they alone, would “stand up for Scotland” at Westminster. No phrase disfigures the English language more than “standing up for Scotland”. It is so vapid and devoid of meaning that Scotland’s three main political leaders have embraced it.

It all started with the SNP following their once in a lifetime feat of securing 56 out of the 59 Westminster seats available north of the border. These men and women would “stand up for Scotland”, presumably in the face of unremitting hostility by baying English unionists from all corners of the house. Yet, on those occasions I have visited Westminster since the 2015 general election I have been told by members of all parties that the SNP 56 are a jolly good thing and contribute greatly to the gaiety of the daily proceedings.

Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Tories, and Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Labour party in Scotland, have since also decided that they too must be seen to be “standing up for Scotland”. Davidson in particular has been so enthusiastic about standing up for Scotland that you began to wonder if she would be agitating for a safe standing area in the House of Commons for the Scottish Tory contingent.

Yet, when they were faced with the first test of their erectness, they were found wanting. Nary a squeak escaped their thin and bloodless lips as Theresa May awarded the Ulster Unionists a £1.5bn bung in return for supporting her programme of austerity and a suicidal Brexit.

Though “standing up for Scotland” is a locution empty and devoid of substance you might think that at the very least it conveys a desire to support Scotland’s interests. If the recent conduct of Scottish Tories and the Labour party in Scotland can be construed as standing up for Scotland, God help us all if we ever get on the wrong side of them.

Between them, these two parties have spent the last five years telling the world that Scotland is a beastly wee country with ideas above itself.

The country is thrumming with barely concealed hostility and suspicion, having been divided from top to bottom by the nasty politics of independence. Its economy is so abject, according to the Scottish Tories and Labour, that independence would knock it back to the Middle Ages and we’d be left looking for snookers to be allowed to converse with civilised people. Each of these parties was pleased to give everyone the impression that independence would leave to a stampede of big firms jostling to get out of Scotland in scenes reminiscent of the fall of Saigon.

I don’t know if anyone has ever asked the Fraser of Allander Institute, the Scottish right’s favourite economic thinktank, if it is able to quantify how much business has been lost to Scotland owing to the Tory/Lab onslaught against Scotland. The picture painted of Scotland by Davidson and Dugdale over the years as an economic wasteland full of people who might assault you at any given time must have cost this country billions in investment and tourism.

Following events last week, however, some of the economists of the Fraser of Allander Institute might have been seeking refuge in a darkened room. For it was revealed that the Scottish economy grew by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2017, a rate four times more than that of the UK as a whole. The news came just a few days after the Fraser of Allander had predicted that Scotland’s economy might be teetering on the brink of a recession. The institute used phrases such as “precarious position” and “stuck in a cycle of weak growth”. The prospect of a recession was “in the balance”.

Several factors have combined to bolster the Scottish economy. There has been a significant upturn in manufacturing and, as widely predicted by many observers of the North Sea oil and gas industries, a return to something approaching rude health in this sector. Yet, as a global oil price war raged well out of the control of Scotland and the UK, the Tories and Labour used it to predict an eternal apocalypse for Scotland. There was just no reasoning with them about the notorious unpredictability of the oil and gas industry. This was a classic opportunity to tell the world that Scotland could never stand on its own two feet and would always need remedial assistance. Scotland doesn’t have any international enemies but if it did none could have inflicted as much reputational damage on the country as Davidson and Dugdale have in recent years. The biggest threat to the Scottish economy is now clearly carried by the UK government. The country’s devolved powers remain insufficient to design an economic strategy that fits Scotland’s significantly different social, cultural and geographic requirements. Even the UK right is beginning to wring its hands over Brexit as each day brings bad news from the front. The latest, that there can be no “frictionless” trade agreement outside the single market, will chill the CEOs of many UK businesses, while the prospect of an end to EU cap payments has the potential to devastate Scottish farming.

There are still challenges for the Scottish government. The country’s crucial SME sector has been neglected by the SNP who have far too easily hidden behind EU procurement law in awarding billions in public sector contracts to global multinationals with little presence in the country. The party is susceptible to certain types of big business and its pet lobbyists but has done little to stimulate growth in Scotland’s small and medium-size businesses.

Predictably, the good news about the Scottish economy was met with cracked smiles by the Tories and Scottish Labour. This made a pleasant change. Last week, they were salivating at the thought of the country’s economy entering recession.