Johnson is not fit to be leader

So, Boris it is.

As expected, Boris Johnson is set to become the next prime minister in a transfer of power made, not by the people of the UK, let alone the people of Scotland, but by a few thousand Tory Party members.

Now, that, in itself, is not overly unusual, or unconstitutional. James Callaghan, John Major, Gordon Brown and Theresa May all became prime minister between general elections after the resignation of their predecessor.

And, indeed, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford became first ministers of Scotland and Wales, respectively, by a similar process.

The big difference here is the political context in which this transfer of power takes place.

Scotland voted overwhelming to remain in the European Union, the Conservative Party is comprehensively rejected by Scots at election after election, and yet at Westminster we have a Tory government led by a man determined that we will leave the EU on Hallowe’en come what may, or as he so charmingly put it himself,“do or die”.

Any form of Brexit will be economically damaging to Scotland, a no-deal Brexit incredibly so, but that matters not a whit to the United Kingdom’s new prime minister.

This is a man who was described by a former boss at the Daily Telegraph as“a cavorting charlatan”about whom there might be debate over“whether he is a scoundrel or a mere rogue, but not much about his moral bankruptcy, rooted in a contempt for truth”whose interest is solely in“his own fame and gratification”. A damning reference indeed.

Generally speaking, I far prefer to play the ball rather than the man, but there are aspects to Boris Johnson’s character that make him utterly unfit to high office.

That is clear even to a number of those from within his own party who are simply not prepared to work for him.

Despite having only become a Brexiteer because he saw it as the route to realising his burning personal ambition of becoming PM, Boris is quite prepared to sink the economy to bring it about.

Thankfully Scotland has a lifeboat.

The face of politics in this country has changed utterly over the last five years.

The prospectus that was put to the Scottish people by those campaigning to remain with the UK has been torn up.

The‘family of nations’with guaranteed membership of the European Union, within which Scotland and Scots were being encouraged to lead, not leave, has been devastatingly demonstrated to have been a tissue of lies.

Scotland deserves the right to decide if it wants all of this or whether it wants to be able to choose its own future through independence.

With independence, we’ll get the governments we as a country vote for.

With independence we can work alongside other countries in the European Union rather than desperately seeking to return to some past nirvana that never really existed. With independence, Scotland can be a normal country.