Boris Johnson’s greatest challenge is now Scottish independence – Bernard Ingham

AFTER several traumatic weeks comes the inquest. Whither the EU? Whither Scotland? And whither the Labour Party. What a mess of perverse pottage!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a media briefing on coronavirus (Covid-19) from Downing Street's new White-House style media briefing room in Westminster, London.Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a media briefing on coronavirus (Covid-19) from Downing Street's new White-House style media briefing room in Westminster, London.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a media briefing on coronavirus (Covid-19) from Downing Street's new White-House style media briefing room in Westminster, London.
By Bernard Ingham
Published 31st Mar 2021, 05:57 BST
Updated 31st Mar 2021, 08:57 BST

In a sense the three questions are related. This is because Scotland wants to ditch Great Britain for the EU and because, I suspect, the Labour Party is essentially pro-EU.

It used to consider the EU a capitalist rump but realised some time ago that it is essentially socialist and will deliver more to Labour’s liking than Westminster.

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Fortunately, the Europhilia of Scottish Nationalists and Labour has been overtaken by Covid events.

Boris Johnson is emerging as a strong leader on the world stage, writes Bernard Ingham.Boris Johnson is emerging as a strong leader on the world stage, writes Bernard Ingham.
Boris Johnson is emerging as a strong leader on the world stage, writes Bernard Ingham.

It means that the SNP could not have chosen a worse time for the second independence referendum it will demand if it wins the election in May.

How could any sane country want to join the EU when it is coming apart at the seams?

It raises serious questions about the SNP’s political judgment when its Anglophobia impels it to seek to join an institution that has amply demonstrated during the pandemic that it could not run the proverbial whelk stall.

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It has also demonstrated the EU’s contempt for peripheral minnows in its 27-nation firmament by trying to stop Covid vaccination doses from crossing the Irish border into the UK.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon is facing mounting challenges ahead of the Holyrood elections.First minister Nicola Sturgeon is facing mounting challenges ahead of the Holyrood elections.
First minister Nicola Sturgeon is facing mounting challenges ahead of the Holyrood elections.

At the same time it has added petty vindictiveness to the EU’s ample charge sheet that includes democratic deficiency, unelected bureaucracy, protectionism, corruption, extravagance with taxpayers’ money and pretention in its claim to statehood.

Only an abomination of all things English could propel Scotland into the arms of such a defective and divided dump.

The situation is in no way altered by the further evidence of Anglophobia from Alex Salmond who, in the wake of his spat with Nicola Sturgeon, is launching a new party to rival the SNP – and its obsession with independence and subservience to Brussels.

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How puny and peevish Scottish politics now looks to any objective observer.