Is Liz Truss god's gift to the Scottish independence cause?

I suppose we should applaud your decision to appear at the final Prime Minister’s Questions despite the more exciting party/Tornado jet/resignation honours trading opportunities elsewhere.

I couldn’t make it past your contemptuous, auto-pilot reply to Ian Blackford – a man bold enough to mention the disastrous Brexit you haven’t actually got done.

But for this old-hand, the charade had become too much even before your final session of bluster and evasion had begun.

COP26 president Alok Sharma was leading a debate on ways to avert the 40-degree record-breaking nightmare that may soon be England’s new normal. Yet even this vital debate was wrecked by the policy chaos emanating from your failed leadership. A sign of things to come.

READ MORE: Commons speaker RAGES at MPs clapping – unless it's in praise of Boris Johnson

As he stood defending government policy, Alok Sharma had no idea whether the next Prime Minister will honour any of it – especially the manifesto commitment to reach net zero by 2050. What pledges could he really make? What policies will survive the leadership horse-trading that lies ahead? And since no-one knows, what was the point of that whole debate?

Money expert Martin Lewis warns a new British Energy Minister will hit the ground hobbling in September as the country crashes towards ‘‘financial cataclysm’ without any mitigation measures in place.

He rightly guesses that you, Boris Johnson, will doodle your final weeks away.

Even though you’re the guy paid to be Prime Minister until September 5.

You’re the guy who should have chaired the Cobra committee before London started burning – but wasn’t even present.

You’re the guy with the gall to accuse Nicola Sturgeon of not running Scotland by fulfilling her indyref2 mandate – while you abandon Britain in full view of uncritical network correspondents and adoring cameras.

But you’re not fooling anyone in Scotland.

No matter the repeated, tired and shameless claims made in that final PMQs, your legacy is now clear.

It is the appalling, wooden and hopeless Liz Truss – now the bookies’ favourite to succeed you as Prime Minister.

Yes folks, just take that in.

Liz blinking Truss as PM.

A woman “who will not rest till the British apple is at the top of the tree”.

A woman who thinks it’s a disgrace that … “Britain imports two-thirds of our cheese”.

A woman who thinks sniffer dogs deter drones.

A woman who expected audience excitement for a Beijing trip to open up “new pork markets”.

A woman who thinks the Irish leader is a Tea Sock.

A woman who manages to combine the robotic style of Theresa May with the total incompetence of Boris Johnson – in the words of one succinct commentator.

A woman who cannot leave a room without help from minders.

A woman who beat an equally appalling candidate, to move forward with Rishi Sunak into a vote of the membership that she’s widely predicted to win.

How on earth can that have happened?

How badly does part of the English electorate need false assurances from someone resembling the Blessed Margaret? How badly do they need to believe that somehow, improbably, taxes can be cut when think tanks warn new public spending is needed on care, health, energy systems and food security?

It’s the Truss Tax lie to match the Boris Brexit lie. And many English voters are ready to buy a total, blatant Tory porkie all over again.

That, surely, is the real shocker.

Not the weird judgement of Tory MPs who voted Truss into the final two, but the dangerous neediness of “ordinary” Tory members who really believe she can charm “the nation”.

That’s as likely as Albert Steptoe impressing your mum. (Look it up).

Not going to happen – at least not here.

Liz Truss as PM – it’s as if the gods have decided to give fair wind to indyref2 and breathe fresh energy into Scottish independence.

Who can now doubt that Westminster is a completely busted flush? The Tory leadership race has proved it beyond reasonable doubt.

Quite apart from the numbing right-wingery, the standard of debate was so woeful and the level of personal spite between candidates so high that disaster clearly beckons for a country led by any of them. Please let that not be Scotland – very soon.

Because the next Prime Minister will be another dangerous dud. It’s either the hapless Liz Truss or the man who appears sensible and progressive by comparison – even though he’s not. Rishi Sunak is responsible for Britain’s sluggish, unequal economy, however much he tries to blame Boris and Covid.

Maybe some Scottish voters think it’s worth giving Keir Starmer (above) another try, since the prospect of a Truss premiership will certainly work as a recruiting sergeant for them.

But what kind of change might a wobbly Labour government deliver – and for how long?

Starmer recently dumped a commitment to change Westminster’s archaic first past the post voting system, which means the inbuilt pro-Tory tilt – the safe seats that haven’t changed hands since Queen Victoria, the whopping 80-seat majority with just 44% of the vote and the winner-take-all British system of government – will all continue in a Labour-run UK. So the next right-wing Tory government will always be just around the corner, waiting in the wings.

It’ll take more than a single five-year term to reverse the pecking order established by Thatcher – which places the needs of the market above the needs of society. But one mealy-mouthed term in office is all Labour is likely to get.

That’s not good enough for Scotland because things are changing.

The last few days have turned many old orthodoxies on their head. Suddenly, living in 40-degrees-London isn’t that attractive, and trying to produce crops in frazzled Lincolnshire isn’t that easy. Cool, is the new hot. And Scotland’s got plenty of (relative) cool.

I’m not saying Scotland is immune from the threats of an ever-warming world. Absolutely not. Climate complacency could yet be Scotland’s downfall.

READ MORE: Climate change isn't a far-off crisis – it's right here and right now

But we have a political culture that backs state intervention, a multitude of renewable energy sources, a relative abundance of water and public ownership of bodies like Scottish Water. Might we need desalination plants in future to provide water for non-drinking purposes? It’ll be hard to drive that investment through the welter of privately owned water companies in England, but easier here.

In short, Scotland will rapidly become a more appealing prospect for climate fugitives and energy-investors, especially if Westminster fiddles while London burns – pressing ahead with nuclear power despite its greater cost per unit, 10 to 20-year build-time and radioactive legacy.

So, the imminent election of Prime Minister Sunak or Truss presents Scots with a big moment of choice.

The climate is changing – fact.

Westminster is not equipped to cope – fact.

The next Prime Minister will be unelected and unelectable in Scotland – fact.

Scotland is ready to go – fact.

Just as Thatcher’s excesses created the Scottish Parliament, Johnson’s corruption will rightly be seen as the last nail in the Union’s coffin.

And it hardly matters whether Rishi or Liz is holding the parcel when the music finally stops.