A cynic might think Douglas Ross has seen the writing on the wall - Euan McColm

Announcing - or justifying, if you’re a supporter of David Duguid, the former government minister ousted as candidate by Conservative HQ - his decision to stand in the general election in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross fell back on that tiredest of clichés. From where, other than the front, can any leader lead?

But I digress. The facts of the matter are these: Ross - who had a dual mandate as both an MSP and MP until Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the July 4 General Election - had previously declared he would not be standing for re-election to Westminster. His priority was taking on the SNP inside Holyrood.

On Wednesday evening, David Duguid - who had been an MP since 2017 and had held ministerial office - revealed that, despite having been adopted by local members, the Conservative Party had informed him he would not be their chosen candidate. Duguid - who recently spent time hospitalised with a spinal problem - has been recovering well and was ready for the fight ahead.

On Thursday morning, citing Duguid’s health issues, Ross announced his decision to stand.

The whole thing has echoes of Monty Python’s “Bring out your dead”, with Duguid as the man proclaiming he’s fine, even as he’s being thrown on a corpse-piled cart.

Perhaps some, exceedingly loyal, Tories will see Ross’s decision as an act of heroism. Others might think grabbing the nomination from a man manoeuvred out by party officials while he recovers from serious illness looks like Alan B’Stard level stuff.

Announcing his candidacy, Ross went big on the constitutional question. It was, he said, time to “end the SNP’s obsession with independence for good”.

What a bizarre thing to say. The SNP’s raison d’être is the achievement of independence. Ross can no more end the nationalists’ obsession with that issue than he can stop the world turning.

I suppose we can expect that kind of hyperbole during an election campaign, particularly from the Tories whose relative rebirth in Scotland was entirely down to the party’s strong opposition to a second independence referendum.

Since it is now settled that there will be no Indyref2 any time soon, Ross’s “defender of the Union” schtick was all a bit last season.

Whether he intended it or not, Ross’s decision suggests that his commitment to Holyrood is not what it once was. The Tories face a bruising time at the polls in 2026 and Ross faces relegation from being an agenda-setting opposition leader to becoming boss of the third largest Holyrood group.

A cynic might think Ross has seen the writing on the wall.

I, on the other hand, am quite sure Ross’s intentions are noble. I would point out to him, though, that the fight on independence is largely taking place in Holyrood rather than Westminster and so his offer to jump in at this point is quite unnecessary.

I’d also remind Douglas Ross that, despite all the reasons he's given for stepping up, he can't escape the fact he’s standing for election on the record of the Tory government of Boris Johnson, partygate, Liz Truss, and Rwanda.