The National:

THE Scottish Tories are clinging on for dear life, with just one week to go until the General Election.

Their leader has already resigned mid-campaign, and the Conservatives are facing a very real possibility of a complete wipeout north of the Border.

To make matters worse, they have absolutely no popular policies – let alone personalities – to lean on.

But they do have one thing that appeals to a select group of voters: they’re not the SNP. And boy, do they know it.

There has been no clearer demonstration of the Tories’ desperation than their party political broadcast, which was shown on the BBC on Thursday evening.

The brief two-and-a-half minute video was all the time Douglas Ross had to pitch to BBC viewers – and he decided to spend no small chunk of it talking about the SNP.

Ross opened the party political broadcast by saying: “This General Election in Scotland is about beating the SNP.”

And it really went from there.

In fact, in that brief broadcast Ross mentioned the SNP directly a massive 18 times. If you include mentions of SNP figures like John Swinney, the tally goes higher.

Ross only saw fit to mention his own Scottish Conservative party seven times – just once more than he used the word “independence”.

If you include mentions of “breaking up the UK” and the like, the tally again goes higher.

"This was actually embarrassing," one social media user wrote. The Jouker has to agree.

And it comes after the Scottish Tory manifesto mentioned the SNP more than once per page, with Ross directly name-dropping his opposition 12 times in his foreword alone.

Despite the constant Tory rhetoric, anyone would be forgiven for thinking it’s not the SNP who are “obsessed” after all.