The National:

THE Tories have managed to get themselves in an entire mess criticising the First Minister for promoting Scotland abroad.

In perhaps the ultimate example of how pitifully they view Scotland, our elected leader travelling to other countries to talk us up is worthy of condemnation.

Nicola Sturgeon had the perfect rebuttal at First Minister's Questions, however. 

"I make no apology. I will continue to do everything I can to promote Scotland abroad," she said.

"Interestingly, the Tories have been criticising it – I notice that the Secretary of State for Scotland seems to agree with me, rather than with them.

"In the last couple of years alone, David Mundell has visited Iceland, the USA, Uruguay, Chile, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, Paraguay, Argentina, Germany, Belgium, Myanmar and Singapore.

"And do you know what? I back him to do it. I think the only question is – why did nobody notice that he was gone?"

It really does expose their hypocrisy. It's okay for the Scottish Secretary to travel around the world, but the actual top representative of Scotland? 

That Tories find the latter an outrage is quite revealing in terms of who they see as really ruling Scotland.

This whole saga has only served to expose their failure to stand up for Scotland.