AS it was the last day before recess, Holyrood laid on a Tex-Mex barbecue complete with staff in Sombreros today. There was even a pinata for MSPs to thwack furiously.

I suspect Ruth Davidson never imagined being opposition leader would feel like this.

But then came Brexit, the Tories swapped their long-term economic plan for spin-the-bottle and Jacobean revenge drama, and suddenly the job lost its prestige.

Nicola Sturgeon was first to take aim at FMQs, insisting Scotland should carry on regardless in the EU, not settle for second-best.

“Why is Ruth Davidson suggesting that we meekly throw in the towel?” she asked.

“The Conservatives have brought this country to the brink of disaster. [Their] reckless, selfish behaviour... has put economic stability and the reputation of the UK on the line.”

And that was just a gentle tap to get started.

“The Tories’ reckless gamble has left us in a political, economic and constitutional crisis unparalleled in modern times,” added Kezia Dugdale, revelling in Labour’s promotion to second worst party in parliament. Ms Davidson started to look ragged at the seams.

Trembling Green Patrick Harvie then bashed the “chief fraudsters" of the Leave campaign and Boris Johnson for “abdicating his responsibility for the mess he helped to create”.

Meanwhile LibDem Willie Rennie gasped at Ms Davidson's lack of embarrassment.

"Within a few weeks of becoming leader of the opposition support for independence is at a record high. God help the Union if it carries on like that!”

When Mr Rennie can score a zinger off you, you know life’s taken a wrong turn.

How she must have pined for the relative dignity of being put in the stocks in a clown costume instead.

Legal boffin Adam Tomkins clawed back a little ground for the Tories by pointing out, despite SNP-stoked hysteria, that Holyrood had no power to veto Westminster over Brexit.

Ms Sturgeon irritably conceded the point, then delivered the coup de grace.

“The referendum was brought about purely for the internal purposes of the Conservative party. Each and every one of them should be deeply, deeply ashamed of themselves.”

At which the battered Tory husk finally burst open and out spilled, not sweets, but a lifetime's supply of sour grapes. They’ve earned them.