What exactly can the new PM do for Scotland?

Last night’s Tory leadership hustings in Perth saw Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak interrogated on their plans to tackle the energy crisis. As with other occasions on which they have fielded this question, neither of them gave particularly convincing answers. Both candidates have struggled to articulate an energetic government response to crippling increases in fuel bills for households and small businesses. At a time of acute anxiety for voters, when they are looking for reassurance, the message they are hearing from the Tories is that there’s only so much the state can do and it’s not very much at all.

This pall of Whitehall impotence hangs even more heavily over Scotland. During the Q&A session with party members, Truss was asked twice about her earlier statement that expanding energy capacity, alongside tax cuts, was the answer to combatting escalating fuel costs. The first question was about the role of nuclear power and the second shale gas but both presented the same teaser: how would she deliver the benefits of either to Scotland when the SNP-Green Scottish government is opposed to both.