The National:

PENNY Mordaunt has been in Scotland this week to speak at the Edinburgh Fringe, during which she said the SNP’s approach to politics was “full of bile and hatred”.

The House of Commons leader said the SNP use a “victimhood” narrative to describe Scotland’s place in the UK which she added really “winds me up”.

On her return home from north of the Border, it would seem she is still seething about the desire for Scotland to break away from the Union, insisting on Twitter that the UK is a “family”, pointing to that being the most important reason we should all stick together.

She said: “Reflecting on my visit to Scotland this weekend. We often hear rational arguments for the merits of union based on our shared prosperity and security.

“While correct, they miss the most important thing. It is family.

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“A shared culture, history and endeavour. It’s in our poems, in our rivalry, in our blood and brotherhood. A bond that lives in our hearts as well as our heads.”

While Mordaunt claims we have a “shared culture”, she’s clearly forgetting the time she attempted to recite part of Robert Burns’ To A Louse in the Commons in an exchange with the SNP’s Deidre Brock.

Brock’s reaction at the time of pained schadenfreude indicated just how successful Mordaunt’s attempt at Scots had been.

As for shared prosperity, where do we even begin? Soaring interest rates, families being plunged into poverty due to rising food prices and benefit caps, post-Brexit trade deals threatening farm incomes, electricity generators in Scotland paying significantly more in transmission fees than anywhere else in the UK…The Jouker could spend all day listing all the reason no such thing exists in Brexit Britain.

Speaking of Brexit, that is surely a glaring reason why claims of a “shared endeavour” are misplaced. Scotland voted to stay in the EU and the Tories forced us out, despite the Better Together campaign pledging this wouldn’t happen if Scotland stayed in the UK.

SNP MP Peter Grant had an amusing response to Mordaunt’s tweet saying: “If this is shared prosperity I’d hate to see what shared austerity looks like.”

The Jouker reckons the only reason Mordaunt is pleading with us to believe in her “family” ideal is because it is precisely that – a fabrication. The Union is no such thing, and perhaps this is what she should reflect on.