IT'S a safe bet that no matter what the First Minister announces as a response to the rapid spread of the concerning Omicron variant, the parties of British nationalism are going to complain about it.

Then next week when Boris Johnson belatedly announces the same thing, they will say nothing at all. This is exactly the playbook that they have followed throughout the pandemic and there is no indication that they are about to change any time soon.

There is to be no change in advice or new restrictions until after Christmas day, now just a few days away, however from December 26 there will be restrictions on the number of people who can attend public events for indoor standing events, the limit will be 100, for indoor seated events it will be 200, and for outdoor events, it will be 500 seated or standing. For events that do go ahead within these attendance limits, physical distancing of one metre will be required.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon announces new Covid restrictions for Scotland

This means that the annual Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh will no longer go ahead, and that sporting events must take place without spectators. This has already led to the predictable howls of outrage on social media from the entitled man-children who make up a small but highly vocal segment of Scottish football fandom.

The parties of British nationalism will refrain from commenting on the fact that the British Government is not making extra funding available to Scotland in order to help businesses cope with the additional strains caused by the recent spread of Omicron and the greater public wariness about going out to public hospitality venues. The Scottish Government has identified £100 million from existing budgets to be used to support affected businesses.

The UK Treasury announced £440m in funding which it claimed was "extra" but it didn't take long for it to come to light that this money was merely an advance of cash already accounted for in the Scottish budget. Re-allocating it now will create a significant shortfall later. Following further analysis of the UK Treasury announcement, the First Minister said that the Scottish Government would have an additional £175m in spending power which it would allocate to business support.

READ MORE: Football fans and hospitality firms react to new Covid restrictions

On Tuesday, the UK Chancellor announced additional support for business, but this announcement generates no extra funding for Scotland and any Barnett consequentials are already accounted for within previous Treasury announcements.

You can be certain that Douglas Ross and Anas Sarwar will be the first in the queue to complain about the inevitable reduction of funding in other areas using this cash from Scotland's fixed budget that this will cause further down the line. The parties of Unionism are now nothing more than apologists for the Anglo-British nationalism of the British Government.

Above all they are governed by a terror that any criticism of the British Government might translate into an argument for independence, so much so that they are now failing Scotland even on their own terms, by failing to speak up for Scotland within this so-called Union which they claim to be so proud of, they are making the case for independence by default.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

To receive our full newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click here and tick the box for the REAL Scottish Politics