The Ghost of Christmas Party Past

The Downing Street Christmas party 2020 may have lost Johnson the parliamentary Tory party and the grassroots party. The recent loss of a safe Tory seat may end his Prime Ministership and the United Kingdom looks less likely to survive with every day that passes.

Christmas 2021 is approaching and we will have the Dickens of a time. Boris the Johnson, allegedly Prime Minister of the increasingly disunited kingdom has been visited by the ghost of Christmas Party past, most of the population, especially the despised plebs who will only have, if they are lucky, the ghost of a Christmas present as the possibility of Christmas Future seems to be receding, borne away by the winds of millionaire generated austerity for the poor. Marley’s ghost has possessed Dominic Cummings to issue statements that make The Boris’s position even less tenable.

The Boris is widely regarded as the best recruiting sergeant for independence and his possible departure regarded as delaying independence since nobody could be as toxic as the fridge magnet.

If this pretend buffoon who acts as like a misogynistic, racist, narcissistic sociopath who cares nothing for anybody else and believes himself exempt from the rules others must follow, even the rules he himself imposed, were to go, who might replace him and how would they affect support for independence?

Rishi Sunak, currently Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post almost as dear to any Tory heart as their own wallet, must be considered a favourite. It is hard to read his attitude to the union but rumour has it that Michael Gove had to show him the benefit of the Union to Westminster, so it is likely Prime Minister Sunak will not care about the Union, may drop the post of Minister for the Union or give it to someone who will stoke the fires of independence: The lacklustre Alister Jack or, as a poisoned chalice, to Michael Gove. Ot he may just want to get rid of it as a reaction to having to listen to Gove and so losing the will to live.

Michael Gove would be keen on keeping Scotland in the United Kingdom. He is almost as toxic as the Boris in Scotland, though he can visit a Scottish nightclub and go home unscathed – perhaps because anyone wishing to harm him worries that a gallon of hand sanitiser will not be enough to clean their fist afterwards. Or perhaps because Gove has been out of the limelight long enough that he is considered to have a trace of humanness in him.

The current Home Secretary, Priti Patel is considering running for the top job. She lacks the qualities and intelligence needed in a Prime Minister and has become famous as a blunt weapon, someone who instinctively says the most provocative thing she can think of, Her capacity for speaking first thinking later and sticking the boot into her mouth may well exceed that of her current boss. All the above qualities are likely to endear here to Tory MPs and voters.

Dominic Raab, keen advocate of removing human rights because human rights apply to humans not Tories, seems even less suited to the top job than Priti Patel but has not made enough anti-immigrant statements to attract votes.

And finally Liz Truss. A nonentity of whom the nicest thing that can be said is “Who?”

It is probable that none of these (with the possible exception of Michael Gove) care enough about preserving the United Kingdom to prevent its dissolution and they may even feel that the prospect of being in power for ever without the possibility of that dammed SNP being in a position to hold the balance of power is attractive enough to try to ensure Scotland leaves.

The Post Johnson prime minister may more or less openly drive support for independence through the roof and make a series of polls showing 60% or more support for independence a reason to open negotiations without an inconvenient referendum which risks giving the wrong answer.

If they do we can expect a campaign painting the Scottish people as trouble makers, thorns in the government’s collective genitalia, preventing the UK entering the sunlit uplands of Brexit where unicorns graze in fields of gold.

It is not clear whether the Boris will survive this but a week is along time in politics and the storm over the Christmas Party may be dying down. But none of the likely replacements seem likely to drive support for Independence downwards, thought there may be a slight not-Boris slump for a while.

A post Boris cabinet is likely to be even further to the right than the present one, even further wedded to Brexit and even more xenophobic. It will be an opportunity for the YES movement to spread fear of remaining in the UK. Fear won the last referendum for the NO campaign, it can win the next one for the YES movement.

What ever happens Independence is coming. The only question is how many of today’s YES movement will live to see it.