When United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed Scottish devolution as “a disaster” he was speaking with some authority.
He is, after all, an expert on disaster.
He presides over a disastrous Government at Westminster; many if not most of his Minister are either proven disasters or disasters waiting to happen.
In a few weeks he is likely to lead his nation into the biggest disaster it has faced in peacetime – exit from European Union’s trading bloc without a deal, without a relationship, setting it adrift on a friendless sea.
Well, perhaps not entirely without friends. There are of course the Government’s mates in the infamous ‘high priority line’ who have grown fat on the thousands of public contracts handed them during the COVID-19 pandemic (the handling of which is another Government disaster).
Contracts worth billions awarded without competition following the suspension of procurement rules, some to companies of little known and questionable backgrounds, with what the National Audit Office has stated “with inadequate documentation”.
The expenditure has been so great that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is now likely to implement an indefinite freeze on public service pay for all but front-line National Health Service workers.
A move described by one union leader as "insulting to those public sector workers that have underpinned the fabric of society during this continuing pandemic".
In effect, those who worked to hold the country together, must now pay for the Government’s mismanagement.
So it is little wonder there has been a great deal of push back to Johnson’s description of devolution as [former Prime Minister] Tony Blair’s biggest mistake.
Blair delivered on his 1997 manifesto commitment to hold devolution referendums, with Scotland and Wales voting for their own Parliaments, and Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland forming a power-sharing coalition.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “The only way to protect and strengthen the Scottish Parliament is with independence”.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford said it was a clear sign that devolution was under attack and echoed Sturgeon: “We can stop this wrecking ball; it is called independence”.
With successive opinion polls showing Scots favouring independence and the prospect of pro-EU Scotland being dragged out of the European Union by an English majority, it is hardly surprising Johnson’s views have been swiftly condemned north of the border.
Scots will be frustrated for now, while Johnson’s Conservatives have a healthy majority at Westminster, but there will come a time when that will not be the case.
The SNP must hold its nerve, and wait for when that time arrives.
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