The UK has become a laughing stock due to the Brexit circus

As I write this, it’s all change at Westminster. Boris Johnson has finally gone, quite incredibly of his own volition, given his controversial track record, replaced by Jeremy Hunt as Foreign Secretary – as the NHS breathes a sigh of relief.

The much more principled and substantial David Davis is gone with Dominic Raab taking his place – a Brexiteer replaced by another Eurosceptic hardliner – it’s almost as if Theresa May likes a fight on her hands.

Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg continues to prance around like Parliament’s pet peacock, flexing his feathers and ruffling everyone else’s.

Behind the scenes, the shadowy European Research Group is closing ranks, stuck deep in their anti-EU bunker, trying desperately to divert attention from their over-reliance on nostalgic ideology and lack of any concrete plan for delivering the UK from the so-called “shackles” of Europe.

North of the Border, the Scottish Tory leader keeps her head down and bowed to her imperial masters, as Davidson’s MPs split over support for a hard or soft Brexit, regardless of their constituents’ democratic wishes. Unsurprisingly, no-one even cares what David Mundell has to say for himself on the matter.

In the mainstream media, the silly season is in full swing, as some right-wing, attention-seeking, cloud-cuckoo commentator has suggested we bring in Nigel Farage as PM to ensure Brexit means Brexit. All the while the country waits with bated breath to see who is next to “Cexit”, or exit the Cabinet, and get their “trotters” up on gardening leave in the South of France. What a farce, what a mess, what a laughing stock the UK has become.

To make matters worse, another circus is rolling into town this Friday, as the President of the United States arrives in the UK for his state visit. More headaches, difficult conversations and awkward hand-gripping in store for the PM. And all the time this is going on, all the time the Cabinet huffs and puffs and plays musical chairs, no actual governance is emanating from Westminster.

Remember when Alan Milburn and the entire social mobility commission resigned over the lack of focus on social policy and reducing inequality from the UK Government? Milburn cited “indecision, dysfunctionality and a lack of leadership” as his reasons for not renewing his position on the commission, with all eyes in the government focused on Brexit to the detriment of pursuing goals on pretty much anything else, least of all social justice and equality. Many non-Tory voters reading this paper will not necessarily associate a concern with these issues as central to the Conservative creed, but Theresa May had made an explicit promise to tackle social division while PM – in fact she said it was her personal priority.

But it would seem that the PM is rather fond of words and less keen on action.

In her speech at the Tory conference last year she spluttered that she’d entered politics to “root out injustice and give everyone in our country a voice”. Everyone that is except the Windrush generation for instance – as a British citizen, you’d need a very loud voice indeed to be heard from as far away as the Caribbean.

Or everyone that is except the original 48% who, like May herself, voted to stay in the EU and avoid all this chaos and destruction in the first place.

Maybe she’ll channel some of these proud sentiments into her conversations with Trump this weekend. Maybe she’ll put Brexit on the backburner briefly to tackle the president on a number of his extreme policy ideas which threaten human rights, global progress, world peace, climate change and the protection of the environment.

Dream on. We could perhaps have expected this from previous Prime Ministers, but not Theresa May. Her main focus will be Brexit once more and the desperate need to get a firm promise from the president on future trade deals between America and the UK whatever the cost. I’m guessing Trump will just say anything he likes or anything she wants to hear – he knows Theresa May’s days are numbered.

He is already weighing up the opportunities of negotiating with another leader where there is more personal chemistry and financial links. Indeed on the White House lawn he was full of praise for Boris and openly speculating about perhaps meeting the former Foreign Secretary. Most importantly, thanks to the gargantuan failure of Liam Fox to secure any trade deals with countries outwith the EU, despite all the boastful promises, he knows Britain is desperate. Trump holds all the cards thanks to the UK Government’s monumental failure.

Grim stuff. The only silver lining in all this is that the Scottish Tories’ coats are on a very shoogley peg. How can Ruth Davidson continue to keep such a bland counsel on the major issues of the day without being held to account, if not by the press then at least by the voting public?

Surely now is the time, to paraphrase her boss, to find her backbone and bring her rowdier, hard-Brexit supporting MPs to heel. Someone needs to remind them that Scotland voted to Remain and will not take kindly to being sold down the river just so that these social-climbing MPs can pursue their own career goals many miles away from their constituencies. Ross Thomson take note.

In marked contrast, the Scottish Government continues to get-on-with-the-day-job despite living in limboland over the devolution power grab post-Brexit as publication of the UK Government’s White Paper is postponed from tomorrow into next week. Whether Theresa May or her new Cabinet survives the week or not, the question remains for Scotland – for how much longer are we willing to be held to ransom by a UK Government hellbent on ensuring Brexit happens no matter how detrimental to our nation?

It’s time to walk away from the Westminster circus and life on the flying trapeze and instead build a new future on secure foundations for Scotland.