Beware deluge of lies as PM Johnson bids to sideline our parliament

Johnson has already set the tone for the year with his emphatic “No” to Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a Section 30 order. No great surprise for anyone of course, I’m sure he’d rather “die in a ditch” than give an inch to us impertinent Scots, despite an overwhelming democratic mandate that indicates a strong desire for self-determination.

He could hardly contain his delight as he trotted out the same old “once in a generation” misquote to underline his hostility to a second independence referendum. The message from Johnson is loud and clear: get back in your box Scotland.

We await with baited breath for the next move from Holyrood HQ to combat Westminster intransigence. Meanwhile, perhaps a more pressing matter is worrying rumours of a large-scale devolution power grab once we “Brexit” Tory-style. With a whopping majority of 80 at Westminster, and despite the opposition benches groaning with SNP MPs, expect this “repatriation” of powers to become a grim reality as we crash towards the supposed transition end date in December this year.

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Johnson will take a wrecking ball to our devolution under the auspice of benevolent caretaker and all-round patronising patriarch, the so-called people’s PM, pursuing the will of these people (well, those in England and Wales) and Brexiting en-masse regardless of Scots’ democratic desire to remain part of Europe and recent electoral rejection of all things Tory.

There will be no special measures for Scotland similar to those for Northern Ireland, no rational and just replication of a bespoke deal, tailored to a nation’s unique interests and economic survival, no recognition of Scots rejection of all that Brexit represents and the havoc it will bring to our present lives and future generations.

Here is Johnson’s big chance to get payback for Scots insubordination on all matters in opposition at Westminster. The punishment will befit the crime as far as the UK Government is concerned, their chosen sentence for our crimes against their inhumanity and standing up for our own sovereignty resulting in the marginalisation of Holyrood.

Just this month, Holyrood overwhelmingly voted to withhold consent from the EU Withdrawal Bill, with only the Scottish Tories failing to represent their constituent’s democratic choice. In the end this show of constitutional rebellion had no clout at all against a newly energised and arrogant Tory government, with Johnson, and the help of English Labour, just bulldozing on through without a care in the world for consent.

No consideration of the result of the recent election where the SNP gained 45% of the vote and 80% of the seats at Westminster, with all pretence to a partnership of equals dead in the water and the fundamental principles of the Scotland Act in tatters. The end result of this power grab will be a House of Lords with more sway over Scottish matters than our democratically elected MSPs and a silenced electorate.

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The axis of self-interest that is Johnson and Cummings will spin this epic looting of devolution as a necessity of Brexit and an opportunity to fix issues in Scotland that they will argue have been left to wilt under the Scottish Government. Expect economy with the truth, grandiose exaggeration and downright denial of facts, as their misinformation machine rolls into town. Expect a barrage of negativity and criticism from the Scottish Tories at Holyrood, as the rub their hands with glee, henchmen and women to Johnson’s bully boy banter, with not enough introspection to realise that it was their party that has brought the country to its knees in the first place.

Just look at the Tories operation to break through the red wall of Labour seats at last year’s General Election. The Conservative and Unionist Party threw their considerable financial weight and online wizardry at doggedly targeting key positions in the disgruntled North of England. Their oxymoron phrase “Get Brexit Done” appealed to all shades of red and blue voters who were impatient for change and desperate to move on.

In addition, the Tories knew that not only Brexit supporters were up for the taking, but voters disillusioned with Corbyn and a Labour Party they didn’t recognise as their own anymore. Johnson offered these targeted voters a mesmerising cocktail of hope and revenge – more money for public services, more recognition of their disenfranchisement and more rooting out of immigrants who allegedly take their jobs and use up public resources, despite empirical research and factual evidence that shows the exact opposite to be the case. All this despite it being his party that reduced the UK’s public services to a ruinous state through their cruel and callous austerity measures.

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EXPECT the same charm offensive on Scotland with a similar re-imagining of facts in the coming year. With Johnson kidnapping our parliament’s devolved powers, he’ll magically conjure some resources from the money tree to pour into Scotland’s public purse. “Just look at what I can do when I’m in charge”, he’ll say to Scots, “so much better than your Scottish Government,” whose hands his party have tied behind their backs as they tried to mitigate the very worst excesses of the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax and two-child cap on benefits, for instance, with dwindling budgets and depleted resources.

Johnson will take all the credit for his supposed injection of funds into our hospitals, roads and social care, while pointing the finger at Holyrood for failing to make such important and necessary money available to these services when they had the chance.

Johnson’s boot boy, Sajid Javid, has already started on the mythology round Holyrood’s so-called fiascos, claiming that the Scottish Government have failed to support vital public services and installed the highest taxes in the UK. A quick fact check here would show Javid’s distance from the truth, with Holyrood bolstering health and welfare services for people in Scotland against draconian Tory cuts and calling the Scottish Tories bluff by creating the fairest tax system in the UK. In fact, only those earning over £33,000 pay slightly more in tax, a raise that most voters seemed to think was a good idea when ploughed back into public services, an anathema to individualistic Tories.

Bombarded with anti-Holyrood propaganda, fully supported by the Scottish Tories and certain sympathetic mainstream media outlets, it will be a challenge to sort through the “fake news” in Westminster’s war of attrition.

Whether Johnson’s financial promises will bear any actual relation to reality will be unimportant to the PM. Just like his supposed 40 new hospitals which actually transpired to be just six in reality.

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Whether the actual amount of money he’s pledged to fix social care will materialise from the Treasury, the lack of attention to detail and solid monetary back-up will be of no concern to him.

Before the funds dry up or fail to materialise, Johnson will be long gone, his five-year tenure as king of all he surveys at an end while neatly avoids the historical notoriety of being the PM in charge when the United Kingdom broke into little pieces. He’ll be busy sunning himself in some Caribbean idyll, his blonde ambition tour on pause, ruminating on his next big personal career move.

Scotland beware – in this nightmare scenario the “out with the old and in with the new” Brexit could end up being more of an epitaph than motto for a Holyrood in limbo and a second independence referendum on long-term leave.