Today, we can prise Scotland from grip of toxic nationalism

However implausible their manifesto commitment to independence negotiations is, make no mistake: the SNP will use any size of victory today to step up their attack on the very existence of the UK and ­Scotland’s rightful place in it.

The democratic will of the Scottish people as expressed in the 2014 independence referendum will once again be undermined by the same party that demanded that referendum in the first place.

So reject any notion your vote doesn’t count, that it won’t make a difference. You are the only thing standing in the way of another five years of Nationalist division and failure.

Today is the day to stand united in defence of our country and against a toxic political philosophy that has thrived on negativity for far too long.

Today is the day to draw a line, at last, under the Nationalist confidence trick of blaming all our ills on our compatriots living south of the Border.

Today one small cross, written in pencil in the privacy of a polling booth, can deal a fatal blow to those who would divide us all over again.

Right across Scotland there is a golden opportunity to remove the SNP from the Commons. All you have to do is vote for the pro-UK party best placed to win. That means, in the Borders and the North-East, supporting the Tories.

For many Scots, that will feel like a step too far. Yet only the Tories can mount a realistic challenge to the Nationalists in these areas. And after all, with Rishi Sunak on a hiding to nothing at UK level, a vote for the Scottish Conservatives can hardly be interpreted as a vote for the continuation of this Conservative government.

And it means supporting outgoing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross in Aberdeenshire North and Moray, a seat the SNP have high hopes of winning. It means voting for Scotland Office minister John Lamont in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. And it means in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine the pro-UK case can only be made by the Tory candidate, energy minister Andrew Bowie.

But it’s not enough to defend: pro-UK voters need to attack, to remove incumbent Nationalist MPs and prevent them returning to Westminster and using UK taxpayers’ money to fund their continuing campaign against our nation.

So in Gordon and Buchan, a vote for the Conservatives is the only way of removing the SNP’s Richard Thomson. It’s the same story in two other vital target seats, Angus and Perthshire Glens, currently held by Nationalist Dave Doogan, and Perth and Kinross-shire, where Pete Wishart is fighting for survival.

But political Unionism has never been particularly adept at setting aside party differences and focusing on the greater good. In all these seats, Nigel Farage’s Reform party is misleading voters into believing that they have a chance of victory. But all it’s doing is increasing the chance of the SNP winning.

Scots across the country have different political priorities – such is the privilege of living in a democracy. But unless you support independence above everything else – education, the health service, the economy, taxation, international affairs, defence – then the SNP cannot represent you.

And unless the SNP are removed from their position of being Scotland’s biggest party, at both Westminster and Holyrood, then they will continue to claim, dishonestly, that they speak for Scotland.

They will carry on projecting a fake image of Scotland as more ‘progressive’, more tolerant, more welcoming – in short, more ‘exceptional’ – than our fellow citizens in England.

And they will never stop ­agitating for another independence referendum.

They will stop all such ­activity on only one condition: that you choose to stop them.

Today we all have an opportunity to do exactly that. We would be letting Scotland down if we failed to grasp it with both hands.