IT HAS been quite a week. Theresa May’s government poisoned the soil of the devolution settlement and refused to allow a meaningful debate in the Commons on how the EU Exit bill would affect Scotland despite repeated promises that they would make time for a debate.

They were hoping that they could hide behind some procedural sleight of hand and no one would notice that they were undermining the entire basis of the Scottish devolution settlement. It was an act of naked contempt, one which was exacerbated by the jeering derision with which Tory MPs reacted to SNP interventions.

The following day the SNP stormed out of the Commons after the Speaker first said there could be a vote on an another archaic procedure but then changed his mind, seemingly unsure of what what to do.

All over Scotland, thousands of independence supporters who had been getting irked at the seeming caution of the SNP rose with them and cheered. More than 7000 new members have joined the party, and the independence movement is reinvigorated and reengerised.

The actions of the SNP in Westminster succeeded in forcing the Westminster power grab to the top of the media agenda, when that media had, like the Tories, been hoping that any fuss could be contained then would quietly go away. It is now a racing certainty that there will be another independence referendum sooner rather than later.

In their unbridled arrogance the Tories thought that they could do as they pleased with Scotland, and there would be no consequences.

That’s what you get when you take your advice on the Scottish political scene from Ruth Davidson. However the high handed manner in which Theresa May’s government has treated Scotland has come at a heavy price. The episode prompted a prominent opponent of independence to come out as an independence supporter.

Murray Foote might not be a household name, but everyone in Scotland understands who the editor of the Daily Record is. Murray wasn’t just editor of the Daily Record during the independence referendum campaign, he was the architect of The Vow that the anti-independence parties hastily cobbled together in the final weeks of the campaign.

The Vow promised all sorts of goodness would befall Scotland if only it voted no. It promised a Scotland that would be treated with respect. It promised a stronger and more entrenched devolution. Ever since the No vote in 2014, the anti-independence parties have claimed that The Vow has been fulfilled. Now whenever they make that claim all we need to say is that the man who wrote it disagrees with them. The Foote is on the other boot.

As this wasn’t a bad enough week for this so called Union, it was capped off by David Mundell twittering in the Commons that Scotland isn’t a partner, it’s a part of the UK. So it’s not just The Vow and the foundations of devolution settlement that have been killed off this week, it’s also the solemn commitment made to the people of Scotland in 2014 by the anti-independence parties that Scotland was a valued and equal partner in a family of nations.

Worse than even that, he took it upon himself to redefine the tattered remnants of the Sewel Convention. He insisted that Westminster has the right to act unilaterally when no agreement has been reached with the Scottish Parliament. In other words, instead of consent “normally” being required from the Scottish Parliament before its powers can be changed by Westminster, according to Mundell consent must merely be sought.

He has just admitted that Westminster regards itself as having the right to change the powers of Holyrood whenever it chooses. Home Rule as we know it is dead and buried. Holyrood’s foundations are built on the quicksand of Conservative goodwill, and we saw this week how treacherous that is.

You wait for ages for a material change in circumstances to appear, and then several come along at once. At this rate we won’t have to do any campaigning in order to win the argument for independence, the Tories and their pals will have done it all for us with their special combination of evil and incompetence.

During Furst Meenister’s Questions, the anti-independence parties were naturally keen not to draw attention to the shame of their Westminster colleagues’ contemptuous treatment of Scotland this week. Ruth Davidson decided to pose as tough on crime, after all her party’s treatment of Scotland has been verging on the criminal, so she must have felt she was on familiar ground. Daylight robbery and deception are Tory strong points after all.

Richard Leonard launched his foray into Furst Meenister’s Questions with a bizarre request, asking whether Nicola Sturgeon knew of alternative words for a hummingbird’s beak.

Well Richard, there’s wee neb, toothless gob, and tiny little pecker. All of which are words which could also be used with reference to Richard Leonard, funnily enough. Now I will never be able to look at Richard again without seeing the image of Woody Woodpecker futilely banging his head off a Holyrood desk. Still, at least when Richard is flapping about uselessly it does mean he’s not sitting on his hands, which is what Labour usually does. That must count as progress of sorts.

What none of them wanted to talk about was the destruction of the devolution settlement by a Westminster government, in the face of the objections of the Scottish Parliament. Devolution isn’t just any old government act, it was introduced following a referendum in Scotland during which it was approved by a large majority of voters. Yet here we are with a Tory Government citing a referendum which Scotland rejected as justification for destroying something that Scotland approved in a referendum. Shamefully, Labour, the so-called party of devolution, did absolutely nothing to prevent it.

What we learned this week is that those parties which oppose independence are unwilling or incapable of standing up for Scotland. They cannot or will not protect Scotland and speak up for Scottish interests even within the context of the UK.

Devolution was sold to Scotland as the great British alternative to independence, and now it has been destroyed by the very parties which promoted it. If there is no longer any meaningful devolution, if Scottish Home Rule can’t do what it was set up to do – to protect Scotland from the depredations of a Conservative government that it didn’t vote for – there is no alternative left except independence. When even prominent opponents of independence can see that, the writing is on the wall for British rule in Scotland.