Nobody should be in any doubt about the biggest loser from the council elections - hapless Scots Tory leader Douglas Ross.
The SNP, jaded after 15 years in power, should have taken a hit this week but they recorded their best ever local authority results.
Labour, the perennial whipping boys of Scottish politics, reclaimed a solid second place and will be confident going into the next general election.
The Lib Dems and Greens added to their councillor tallies and will be pleased with the result.
The Scottish Tories, under their dithering commander, have no positive narrative to spin.
They surrendered nearly 60 seats and lost the gains made under previous leader Ruth Davidson.
When deals are being done in town halls across Scotland in the next few weeks, nobody will want to touch Ross’ toxic and diminished Tories.
The root cause of Ross’ nightmare was his inexplicable decision to strap himself to Boris Johnson at the height of partygate.
His initial decision to call on the PM to quit over the lockdown party scandal had been correct and won him plaudits.
But his bizarre U-turn, which he justified on the ridiculous grounds of Johnson being needed to lead on Ukraine, showed a breathtaking lack of nerve.
He could have used the campaign to demonstrate his independence from the PM, but instead gave his rivals ammunition to portray him as a weak and pathetic branch office manager.
Ross’ MSPs are now wondering if he can recover from this fatal and catastrophic error of judgement.
They too were called upon by Team Ross to demand Johnson’s head but were not in the loop when he changed his mind.
It is almost impossible to fathom a political strategy of distancing yourself from Johnson, only then to hug him close when he is still politically radioactive.
Ross has not been forgiven by pro-Johnson MPs for calling on the PM to resign and he has now alienated his MSP group by u-turning.
He has, in the words of one Tory MSP, “few allies” left other than payroll advisers whose jobs depend on him staying put.
In an act of unprecedented political self-harm, Ross has managed to make himself a bigger casualty of partygate than the prime minister.
Most of the talk of the past few months has centred around whether Johnson can survive in post.
The local election results also mean Ross’ job is on the line.
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