THE queues of cars and lorries at Dover in recent days say "Brexit isn’t working" like nothing else. But that has not caused even a flicker of hesitation for the Tory leadership duo, with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak racing around the country promising ever more refugees to be sent to Rwanda and another bonfire of EU laws.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna – the country’s former ambassador to the UK – stepped into the chaos at the weekend with a pointed, if diplomatically worded, tweet, having talked to leadership favourite Ms Truss by phone about the Dover tailbacks. Labour peer George Foulkes, meanwhile, suggested on Twitter that the Dover pictures would be repeated at the Scotland-England border in the case of independence.

In fact, the SNP leadership must be breathing a sigh of relief, in the face of the Dover chaos, that a policy of being in the Common Travel Area, as the UK and Ireland are now, would remove the need for passport controls at the border for UK, Scottish and Irish citizens in the case of independence in the EU.

More broadly, the blue-on-blue attacks of the bizarre Tory leadership election are providing plenty of ammunition for opposition parties. For now, this is not the concern of the two contenders at all. The fact that the Conservatives have been in power for 12 years, or that Ms Truss and Mr Sunak have been in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, are just irrelevant trifles as the sound bites and ideological bidding for the votes of the ageing, hard core Tory membership continues.

The problem here is not only that the way the Tories elect their leaders makes a mockery of democracy. The real problem is that through the Conservative years, especially the last six Brexit years, truth has been the casualty. Lies – blatant, disingenuous or deeply cynical – are now the order of the day for the Tories and many of their media allies.

Whatever this contest is about, it’s not about integrity, though Sir Keir Starmer, honest but dull, talks about bringing it back. Maybe so, though his latest "big speech" on economic growth is not going to set political debate alight. But with Labour’s big lead in the polls, perhaps for now it doesn’t have to.

Yet with Labour’s acceptance of Brexit in its current hard form and in its aversion to talking about Brexit, Labour risks being part of the Brexiter lies. And Labour’s Brexit stance is surely part of the undermining of UK politics as genuine and substantive debate, based on facts as well as sound bites, withers away.

The current competition between Ms Truss and Ms Sunak over how many EU laws to bin could be particularly damaging. Never mind that the Brexit-embracing Tory Government still has precious little idea what Brexit is for. Or that it’s in denial on the economic damage, the barriers to trade, the hard border, or the fact it was they who signed up to the Northern Ireland protocol as an oven-ready deal much preferable to Theresa May’s one. The sleight of hand over a rapid demolition of the 2,000-plus EU laws on the UK’s statute book could become central as the new prime minister takes over.

The UK joined the EU half a century ago. So all sorts of laws, regulations and regulatory bodies are entwined in UK law and practice. The EU didn’t impose these laws – they were voted for by the UK. And they were often passed by Westminster with additional criteria not even required by the EU. Many EU laws came out of UK policy proposals – most obviously, Margaret Thatcher’s championing of the creation of the EU single market.

Yet now, Ms Truss and Mr Sunak can attack any laws they choose from the last 50 years – from health and safety and workers’ rights, to environment, transport, business and more – labelling it as getting Brexit done, getting rid of "bad" EU laws.

This is, of course, absurd and anti-democratic. But will Sir Keir call it out or will he wriggle and search for ways to defend EU laws without calling them European and without defending the UK’s decades as a leading player in the EU? We have yet to see how far down a part-unicorn, part far-right Singapore-on-Thames route Ms Truss, or Mr Sunak, will go. But sticking an ideological Brexit label on any law you don’t like since 1973 will surely have the populist right champing at the bit.

Back in the real world, the UK economy is slithering between inflation and recession. And yet the most likely next UK prime minister continues to claim that both having tax cuts and protecting public services that are in desperate crisis is an easy and obvious thing to do. As the cost of living crisis continues to bite, unrest and strikes grow, the future looks bleak – and unstable.

In this gloomy context, Sir Keir may continue to hope his safe pair of hands stance will be enough to win Labour the next election. And Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP will hope that the ever more destructive, chaotic Tory governance of the UK will push up support for independence. Both may be right.

The crises piling one on top of another in the UK – a crisis of our politics as well as of the economy and the wider, unstable world – may make the independence route look increasingly like a safer choice. Borders remain a tricky issue for the independence side. And crises can lead to support for the status quo.

But the UK economy is stuttering, its public services faltering, its politics damaged and the ideological grasp of Brexit as strong as ever. So if the SNP and wider independence movement cannot make the case for independence in the EU now, then when?

Independence has been posed as a choice between two unions – the UK and EU. They’re not the same unions. And Brexit and independence are not two mirror-image twins. But as the Tory shires choose the next UK prime minister, it’s clear which union looks most on the ropes.

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