Scotland’s Tory Leader Douglas Ross MP is notoriously indecisive.

Who can forget his flip-flopping over whether to back his own party leader, Boris Johnson? Initially supporting him, then calling for him to quit, then changing his mind - paradoxically when evidence mounted against Mr Johnson - before voting against him in a confidence vote.

Mr Ross appeared to have learned from his mistakes, keeping his head well below the parapet when Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak vied to be Prime Minister. Now he’s back, with new and surprising political advice: ‘Vote Labour!’.

After checking it wasn’t April Fool’s Day, I (momentarily) gave Mr Ross the benefit of the doubt, assuming his words had perhaps been taken out of context or twisted to suit a headline-hungry journalist.

But no, the instruction was clear: “The public know how to tactically vote in Scotland… where there is the strongest candidate to beat the SNP, you get behind that candidate.”

Naturally, I was shocked, but in Edinburgh, Fife, Moray, North and South Lanarkshire, South Ayrshire, Stirling and West Lothian, cosy political arrangements between Labour and the Tories are the norm, with one propping up the other in each of these local authorities.

Of course, during the 2014 referendum, the two auld enemies buried the hatchet under the ‘Better Together’ banner. I assumed it would be a whirlwind romance, but it seems they developed stronger feelings than perhaps either had bargained for. Now they just can’t say goodbye.

The laws of attraction are complex, so it’s hard to know what they see in one another. Frankly, it looks like a marriage of convenience, built on their respective unpopularity, political impotence and shared hatred of the SNP.

There’s no question the relationship has been convenient. In many councils the SNP are the biggest political party but kept out of administration after horse-trading and promises of provost chains between Labour and Tory councillors. 

In Stirling, Labour secured just 16 per cent of the vote, but are in administration with Tory support. In Edinburgh, Labour have 13 out of 63 councillors, but still run the city backed by a Tory party which had just lost 10 of its 19 councillors. In North Lanarkshire, they spiced things up a bit by asking the British Unionist Party to join in.

Of course, the pair want us to believe they are 'just good friends’, with Labour’s Anas Sarwar claiming there are no deals with the Tories and Douglas Ross already distancing himself from his own comments - saying, on second thoughts, that people should just vote Tory. 

This is an attempt to deny what people can see with their own eyes - that for Labour and the Tories, old principles and ideals can easily be sacrificed on the altar of unionism.

The SNP will continue delivering policies to make Scotland a better, fairer country and people will judge whether they have faith in that proposition. With Labour and the Tories, it’s worth bearing in mind that by voting for one, you might just end up with the other.