TO absolutely no one's surprise, Keir Starmer has categorically ruled out devolving any aspects of immigration policy to the Scottish Parliament. 

Speaking while on a visit to Glasgow to address the general assembly of Interpol, Starmer, who has repeatedly spoken of his wish to "reset" the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster following the breakdown in trust between the two parliaments under the Tories, made it clear that this reset will not include the devolution of any powers over immigration policy to Holyrood. 

Given the unique demographic challenges faced by Scotland, the Scottish Government has long sought the devolution of aspects of immigration law and the creation of a Scottish visa in order to encourage those working in sectors vital to the Scottish economy such as hospitality and social care to move to Scotland. 

Both Labour and Conservative figures have previously signalled that they were open to such an idea. In 2016 Michael Gove suggested that Scotland could be given greater control over immigration if the UK exits the European Union. He told BBC Scotland that former Labour MP Tom Harris, who was heading the Leave campaign in Scotland, had written to then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon explaining how Scotland "can have a greater degree of control over immigration policy" after Brexit. 

Of course, Gove and the Tories conveniently forgot all about this once they had got the Leave vote they were looking for.  

More recently, in June this year prior to the Westminster General Election, Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, told the Herald on Sunday that a new Labour Government would be open to talks with ministers in Edinburgh about a "Scottish visa" which would give limited immigration powers to Holyrood. 

Typically, once Labour got the result it wanted it was suddenly no longer open to talks about a Scottish visa. Are you seeing a pattern yet? 

Anas Sarwar confirmed last month that his party would not push for the Scottish Parliament to hold any powers over immigration. 

Scotland desperately needs more immigration, not less. The SNP pointed out in a press release: "It is obvious that Scotland faces an urgent demographic challenge, distinct from the rest of the UK – with an ageing population that is projected to fall 1.5% by 2045, while at the same time the UK population as a whole is expected to grow by almost 6%. 

“Over the same period, it is projected there will be a 22% fall in the number of children in Scotland and a 30% rise in the number of over 65s." 

However, Scotland is being forced into an immigration policy which is driven primarily by English demographic needs and the fear of immigration which is being stoked up by the right-wing press and far-right English nationalist activists on social media. 

In 2020, then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched a plan for a Scottish visa pilot scheme in 2020 which would have allowed an exemption from UK immigration rules over hiring EU and other foreign nationals for businesses and organisations in remote and rural communities in Scotland. The scheme was blocked by the Home Office. 

The overwhelming majority of international arrivals in Scotland travel by air and the tiny number that don't fly arrive by ferry, meaning that everyone who arrives in Scotland from outwith the UK is already processed and checked by border control officers operating on Scottish soil. 

Recently, Labour MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West Michael Shanks, the biggest Scottish disappointment since the Scotland team went to Argentina in the 1976 World Cup, defended Labour's decision to block any Scottish control of aspects of immigration policy, saying that it made sense for there to be a single immigration policy for the entire UK. 

In fact, there are other self-governing territories which have control over aspects of immigration despite not being independent. In Canada, the French speaking province of Quebec has a special agreement with the federal Canadian government about immigration. These rules give preference to French speakers. 

In Portugal, the self-governing island territories of Madeira and the Azores have control over aspects of immigration to the islands. 

There is no real reason why Scotland could not likewise have a special immigration regime within the UK.

The only reason it doesn't is due to the centralising control freakery of Westminster governments and their fear of the hysterical fear mongering of the right-wing press which would spread baseless scare stories about hordes of migrants descending on England across the open border with Scotland.

As if things weren't Bad-en-och...

If you thought that the Tories were bad enough under Rishi Sunak, under their new leader Kemi Badenoch, the party shows every sign of diving off the deep end of post-reality politics.

Badenoch has appointed MP Claire Coutinho as her shadow net-zero minister. Coutinho took thousands of pounds in donations from a founding funder of a Tufton Street climate science denial group and was a senior fellow at the right-wing Policy Exchange Network, which drafted the Conservative law to crack down on Extinction Rebellion and other climate activist groups. 

The Tories now have a net-zero spokesperson who has links to and is funded by climate change deniers. That's like appointing a vaccine conspiracy theorist as the person in charge of public health measures, something which Donald Trump, himself a climate change denier, is planning to do if he wins today's presidential election in the United States. 

We are living in an age where the right wing of politics has succumbed to dangerous fantasy and a flight from reality as it is unwilling to face up to hard truths about the 21st century – above all climate change and growing inequality – as tackling these will entail a financial cost to the rich and powerful. 

It's far more comfortable for them to peddle conspiracy theories and blame migrants and the "woke" for all the problems that beset the modern world.