Lesley Riddoch: Boris Johnson is set to move Tories even further right

Of course, it’s satisfying to see the pompous one on the back foot, even if he shows no signs of acknowledging the bloody nose just administered by all sides and factions of his party. And of course, it would be satisfying to see Johnson turfed out and an unedifying, lacklustre and divisive Tory leadership battle commence.

But let’s face it. The political demise of Boris Johnson will only usher in another elitist, two-faced and anti-indyref2 Tory leader.

So, what will change? If Boris stays, the block on indyref2 remains. But if he’s shown the door, the block will not leave with him.

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So, the only relevant question for Yessers is whether the stumbling survival of Boris Johnson as Tory party leader makes a second independence referendum more or less likely. The jury’s oot.

Of course, the anticipated Supreme Court action on the Scottish Government’s referendum Bill might yet surprise everyone and decide an “official” referendum is within Holyrood’s remit.

But more likely, the best chance may follow the next General Election – if the Labour Party needs SNP support for a stable Commons majority.

That of course depends on the Tories losing – and in that respect, a scunnering leader like Boris Johnson is an indyref2 asset. But if the Tories lose the plot completely, Labour and the LibDems could form a working majority on their own and have no need or inclination to work with the SNP or greenlight the referendum. It is indeed a sair fecht.

Which may explain the general Yes excitement as Johnson looks set to receive his jotters. The final comeuppance of Downing Street’s biggest liar is a kind of substitute for actual progress towards independence. It would be a proxy win. And yet, the protracted, breathless, cynical, alienating debate that’s blaring out of every TV and radio right now, may yet be another recruiting sergeant for indy. Because every media discussion focuses on the Great Lie that Boris Johnson has “done a good job” – partygate excepted. Whit?

I’d guess every sentient Scot is quietly blowing a gasket at the near total absence of challenge to that ridiculous assertion.

Has Boris got Brexit done? Obviously, the collapse of governance at Stormont over the Northern Ireland protocol is profoundly unfinished business. But so too is the economic damage being wrought by Brexit with every passing week. This year’s tourist season will be decimated by staff shortages sweeping every sector of the economy – hushed up to keep the myth of Brexit success alive. Jings, even ultra-Brexiters like former Tory MEP Daniel Hannan are now arguing that Britain should have stayed in the EU single market after Brexit. Lordy, lordy. The Tories can’t even hold the line on taking back control. And yet, the party’s grandees are being allowed to trot out their empty assertions without challenge. I’d guess the average Remain-voting Scot does not miss that fact.

Did Boris see “the nation” successfully through Covid when Britain had one of the highest death rates in the world and crony capitalism was encouraged to rip through procurement processes, with the corrupt award of multi-billion-pound contracts? I don’t think so.

Has Johnson effectively tackled the cost of living crisis? These claims are visibly empty, for anyone with eyes to see. And I’m guessing that is the average non-Tory-voting Scot.

But it gets worse. None of these Boris-led policy disasters is the reason so many Tory MPs finally voted against their leader earlier this week. Nor was the fact the PM has finally been caught lying.

The problem for MPs and local branch party officials is that Boris isn’t Conservative enough. Prof Sir John Curtice noted this complaint when Johnson’s stock started tumbling some weeks ago – and it’s confirmed in every radio interview.

Take that in for a minute. The Nationality and Borders Bill – not harsh enough. The Rwanda deportation policy – too soft. Cushioning energy costs for the poorest - not Conservative cricket. Raising taxes to fund a national care service – not the Conservative way. Levelling up – not Conservative at all. Investing in the north – no matter how haphazardly and superficially – not a priority for the True Blue Home Counties’ set. Spending anything on the Green Transition – a total Tory travesty.

Yip – that is the real shocker.

MPs gather to hear the result of the no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson

Never mind the corruption, the couldn’t-care-less attitude, the chaos and the lies – it seems that Boris Johnson will finally be felled because he isn’t right-wing enough for folk who protect their own narrow self-interests as easily and instinctively as they breathe.

And this awful, awkward, off-putting, union-crushing reality is laid bare every time an English Tory speaks about his/her calculated approach to Boris Johnson’s survival.

So even if it makes you wince or want to switch off – keep listening. That is the sound of the Union crumbling.

A particularly awful moment is set to take place tomorrow, when Boris announces an extension to Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy – apparently housing association tenants will get the right to buy, though happily not in Scotland, thanks to devolution.

There’s a minor problem – Housing Associations are private bodies, not public bodies, and will have to be compensated and even forced to sell their properties.

There’s a major problem – any discounted sale of housing stock to tenants will all but destroy the Housing Association sector in England, because the bulk of homes will disappear forever from the social rented sector. In the midst of housing and cost of living crises, Boris Johnson will announce an opportunistic move that makes both of them immeasurably worse.

And yet – this lunatic move is apparently popular south of the Border. If it wasn’t, Boris wouldn’t be doing it – or talking about doing it, then promptly kicking the whole damaging idea into the long grass.

Now, I’m not suggesting Scots are especially selfless beings whose only thought is for the general good. But we have our heids screwed on.

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There’s no way tens of thousands of homes can be sold off cheaply to their present occupiers without repeating the meltdown caused by Thatcher’s sale of council houses in the 80s. One Housing Association chief told me it’s taken 40 years of slow rebuilding to reach the pre-right-to-buy total of socially rented homes.

An extension of this policy will wreak havoc in England – and yet it’s popular? Do folk south of the Border have no memories, or is Tory free-market dogma so unaccountably appetising that folk will ignore the obvious, damaging consequences?

I’d guess most Scots will instinctively see this “popular” policy for what it is – a callous, homelessness bomb – and thank God it won’t affect us.

Yet enough English voters will be thrilled by this reincarnation of Mrs T at her most vengeful and dogmatic, that Boris hopes to claw his way back into affections and voting intentions.

How can two electorates be so very different? There’s only one reasonable explanation. We are different countries. And this reality will be exposed over and over again as Boris tries to save his skin by appealing to the very worst in Tory voters. It won’t be pretty. But it will remind Scots that another kind of politics is possible – if we make it so.