On Tuesday night, the Tory leadership hopefuls travelled to Perth to peddle their own particular brands of delusion and fantasy.

Perhaps the only constant of the past two months has been the completely out-of-touch and petty bickering between two people who are completely unsuited to the position they now seek.

This moment represents a low point for our politics.

Never in my lifetime have I seen such a chaotic contest to lead our country. Like much of the rest of the country, I came to the view a few years ago that Boris Johnson was likely the worst Prime Minister that this country has ever had in modern times.

The prospect of either current candidate almost forces me to reconsider that view.

Much as the election of Johnson forced me to reconsider whether Theresa May was the worst Prime Minister we’ve ever had, and Theresa May forced me to reconsider whether David Cameron was the worst Prime Minister we’ve ever had.

Politics is broken. And, in Perth on Tuesday night, that was as much on display inside the Perth Concert Hall, as it was outside of it.

An angry crowd of nationalists gathered to jeer Tories attending the event, but eventually turned their ire onto well-respected and trusted journalists from the BBC.

In covering the event, James Cook was subjected to a tirade of abuse. He was called a traitor and scum and even asked how long he had been in Scotland. That he is from Scotland did not satisfy the questioner.

No-one, especially not respected journalists, should be subjected to this level of personal abuse.

That kind of aggression and attempt at intimidation should have no place in our politics, regardless of your view on Scotland’s constitutional future.

Questions like ‘how long have you been in Scotland’ have no place in that debate.

The questions that we should be asking are: How do we build a better country? How do we build public services that work? How do we meet the challenge of the cost-of-living crisis?

It is a question that I have been coming back to this week, as the cost-of-living crisis continues to worsen. The scale of the intervention needed to prevent catastrophe is enormous.

We need, as Martin Lewis said, close to pandemic levels of support.

Our leader, Keir Starmer, announced plans this week to freeze energy bills at their current levels.

A policy that is paid for, in part, by increasing the windfall tax on the oil and gas companies whose profits have continued to grow.

Here is a real proposal to help households here and now - prevent a catastrophe - and use the UK’s economic and political clout for the benefit of the people.

Meanwhile, in Holyrood, Scottish Government ministers claim that they simply do not have any more money to help provide local government workers with a proper pay rise.

The contrast could not be clearer.

The moment demands bold and far-reaching action - which the Scottish Government has failed to articulate, much less deliver.

But, to be fair to the SNP at Holyrood, they’re not alone.

Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Nicola Sturgeon all have at least one thing in common: inaction on the cost-of-living crisis.