Tories detestable? They've been called a lot worse.

I don't think Scotland's 600,000 Conservative voters were particularly surprised to learn that Nicola Sturgeon “detests” them, as she told BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. They've been called worse. And the feeling is mutual.

Indeed, the First Minister's epithet is quite moderate language for nationalists. The First Minister used to regularly call Boris Johnson “racist” which is far more offensive, indeed actually defamatory. Those long-suffering Tory voters had to thole the First Minister casting them as racists by default.

Many of Ms Sturgeon's colleagues, like the SNP MPs Karen Adam and Mhairi Black, call the Conservatives “fascists”. Richard Murphy the independence-supporting tax expert says the Conservatives are pursuing a “fascist agenda”. The SNP's digital strategist, Ross Colquhoun, set the tone by accusing the Tories during Brexit of “embracing fascism and Nazism”. A brief look at Twitter reveals legions of nationalists describing the Conservatives as if they were about to annex Scotland and impose an apartheid regime.

Indeed, so unpopular are the Conservatives among what is sometimes called Scottish “civil society” that their name is itself a term of abuse. “Tory” is a four letter word in much of Scotland and has been since the days of Margaret Thatcher. Though the word is usually prefixed by “f****ing”. David Cameron famously alluded to this during the 2014 referendum campaign when he appealed to Scottish voters not to leave the UK because of the “effing Tories”

It's safe to say that Conservatives have an image problem. And it's not just in Scotland of course. Conservatives are routinely described on social media as if they were a far right organisation. Angela Rayner famously called them “scum”. Labour activists were sporting tee-shirts saying “never kissed a Tory” last week in Liverpool. I wouldn't be surprised if Nicola Sturgeon has one of these – she would certainly approve of the sentiment.

BBC comedy programmes like the News Quiz and Have I Got News For You surf on the general disrespect for Conservatives. This is called “punching up” in the stand up comedy world. The idea is that it is ok to be nasty about the Conservatives because they are all rich b'stards who want to crush the faces of the poor. Whereas Labour are less punchupable on the grounds that they are supposed to stand for, well, equality and fairness and the working man - even though their leaders tend to be wealthy Islington lawyers and their voters are now mostly middle class.

By generating a fuss about Nicola Sturgeon's detestation of them, Conservatives are trying to get a bit of their own back. Why should they always be the bad guys? In BBC dramas like “Roadkill” Tory politicians are portrayed as nasty, selfish, smarmy and generally evil. It's understandable they get upset. 

Indeed, it's fair to say that the sleazy Tory is what the left like to call a “trope” and the Daily Mail calls BBC bias – though it's by no means exclusive to public service broadcasting. Streaming services are equally likely to portray Tories as sleaze-bags, as in Netflix's ”Anatomy of a Scandal”. The New York Times thinks the Tories are somewhere to the right of Recep Erdogan.

Well, maybe they should stop being sleazy – you say, or so nasty. Hardly a week goes by without some Conservative disgraced by allegations of sexual or financial misconduct: Chris Pincher, Conor Burns... Just google “Tory groping”. Then there was the long running scandal of partygate – a self-inflicted presentational disaster of epic proportions. Policies like deporting illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda haven't helped. Nor did cutting tax on highest earners, and then uncutting it.

But Tories do get a raw deal in the media. And it is unfair because most of them are not fascists or even detestable. Indeed, I can confirm that there are not a few Scottish Nationalists to whom that term could be applied. 

Language has itself become a field of political conflict. Schooled by social media politicians of all stripes try to weaponise words to take out their opponents. The SNP tried, unsuccessfully, to stamp out use of the word “nationalist” to describe their politics the better to avoid association with nationalist parties in Europe who tend to be far right. The left used to jeer: “BNP, SNP-only one letter different”.

But it is generally not a good idea for politicians to complain about the names they are called. After all, by focussing on the First Minister's detestation of them, Conservatives have just projected that word across the media. Everyone is now discussing just how detestable Tories are. Even me. 

Don't give currency to the terms being used by your opponents. “Don't think of an Elephant” as they say in American politics. Though it's hard not to.