The National:

TORY MP Andrew Bowie must be absolutely furious at Tory MP Andrew Bowie.

Oops, sorry. We shouldn’t be calling him that. Let’s start again.

Conservative and Unionist Party MP Andrew Bowie must be absolutely furious at Conservative and Unionist Party MP Andrew Bowie.

That’s a bit of a mouthful, but it’s how Bowie wants us all to refer to his political party.

Yesterday at Westminster’s Scottish Affair Committee the chair, Pete Wishart, offered a correction after another member “inadvertently” referred to his party as the “Scottish nationalist party”.

The slip echoed Boris Johnson’s blatant attempts to denigrate the SNP at Westminster, for which he has been frequently admonished.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson's senior aide ‘insisted’ on PM calling the SNP 'nationalists'

It came out recently that the misnaming of the SNP was a brilliant ploy of Oliver Lewis, the former head of the Union Unit. No wonder the thing’s in crisis if that’s the best they can come up with.

Looking to correct the error during the committee hearing, Wishart said: “I don’t think it helps anybody to misname political parties on this committee, and I’m sure [Iain Stewart, the MP for Milton Keynes South who is also a junior minister for Scotland for some reason] would never think about doing this.

“I know we’re having to correct the Prime Minister all the time on this. Parties have particular names.”

This caused Bowie to do what he does best, and offer his own comment when it really isn’t needed.

“Chairman, can I just cut in there,” he started. “I completely agree we should get the names of political parties absolutely right.

“So can we make sure we use the name ‘Conservative and Unionist Party’ for the name of our party as we move forward, and not the ‘Tories’ as is sometimes used in conversation.”

To which Wishart replied: “Sometimes you refer to yourself as such though, Andrew. We will try to do our best.”

The word “sometimes” there is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

In fact, a cursory glance at Bowie’s Twitter shows he has been using the word Tory himself for years.

The National: MP for Milton Keynes South and Scotland Office minister Iain StewartMP for Milton Keynes South and Scotland Office minister Iain Stewart

We understand why Tories might be uncomfortable being called Tories, given the word’s etymology, but their outrage rings hollow considering the Scottish Conservatives Twitter account is called @ScotTories.

The word Tory is derived from the Irish Gaelic word tóraidhe, meaning outlaw or robber. Considering Health Secretary Matt Hancock said just days ago that the public could not expect Conservative ministers to apologise when found to have broken the law, perhaps it’s not too irrelevant a term.

READ MORE: Jacob Rees-Mogg attacks lawyer leading Tory cronyism case

It’s certainly one that Bowie feels comfortable using, as he tweets the @Young_Tories often enough.

What’s more, in 2019, during the Conservative leadership contest ultimately won by Boris Johnson, Bowie tweeted the inane and obvious: “There are more songs in this competition than MPs running to be Tory leader 🙄...#Eurovision.”

In November 2020 he told us: “One of the many reasons I joined the Tory Party waaaaay back in the day (cough, 2007) was because it finally decided to acknowledge and get serious on tackling climate change.”

Ahead of the General Election in 2019, he tweeted: “Message to all those asking the mood amongst Scottish Tories ahead of the election - bring it on. We're ready to fight. Ready to win. Ready to stop the SNP. Ready to sort Brexit. Ready to respect the 2014 referendum. Up for it? You bet we are.”

It’s as incredibly boring reading Bowie’s tweets as you would imagine, so we’re going to stop there.

The Tories like to talk about manufactured grievances from Yes supporters, perhaps they should take a look at their own MPs first.