APPARENTLY, the Romans didn’t do weeks.

But if they did, this would be Boris Johnson’s hebdomas horribilis – the turbulent, disastrous and hugely revealing week when the wheels came off the cart and it all went horribly wrong. When pigeons came home to roost, vaccine achievements failed to distract and voters with a conscience saw the Tories for what they really are.

Ruthless, irresponsible, arrogant, superficial and racist – yet still unaccountably ahead in the opinion polls down south.

And therefore, this might also be the week that proves pivotal in switching former No voters to Yes.

Where to start?

The week began with violence, thuggery and a debacle that saw England’s considerable achievement of reaching the Euro 2020 final turn to dust almost overnight. Black players were targeted with online abuse, passers-by near Wembley were kicked and battered and a mural of Marcus Rashford was graffitied with racist slogans. It emerged that terrified families failed to find any police on duty inside Wembley on the night – just young stewards too scared to intervene. Some ticket-holders reported seeing envelopes of money handed over before scores of ticketless fans rushed in.

Even before Sunday night, St Andrews Professor Steve Reicher had warned that nearly full stadiums and disinhibited fans could turn the Euro finals into 2021’s version of Eat Out to Help Out, “on steroids”. As it turns out, it’ll be a happy miracle if that day – which should have been one of England’s proudest – doesn’t become a super spreading event for new Covid variants.

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What happened represents a total failure by all the responsible authorities – Uefa, the English FA and the Metropolitan Police – and by a sizeable section of England’s fan-base. But no-one’s taken responsibility and few broadcasters have got anywhere near the heart of the political problem: Boris Johnson.

Channel 4 News has, again, been exceptional. Already facing the bullet in Tory privatisation, the channel invited Daily Mirror assistant editor Darren Lewis to spell his feelings out: “Politicians … are part of the problem. The rhetoric from the Prime Minister empowers racists in this country. It starts at the top. I’m not going to come on and sugar coat it”.

Radio 5 Live phone-in programmes were full of straight-talkers like the white foster mum of a black lad who described the everyday persecution he faces – being thumped on his way to school and left behind at bus stops by some drivers. These honest, unflinching accounts of grinding racism are perhaps the ONLY good thing to emerge from the Euro finals.

But from Boris Johnson, not a peep.

Don’t be fooled by talk of him hauling social media companies in for a “bollo__ing”.

It seems their visit to Number 10 was pre-planned and the Prime Minister added on just 15 minutes to discuss racist posts about footballers, though the Instagram representative wasn’t asked to explain how sending monkey emojis to black footballers doesn’t breach their rules.

Meanwhile it’s been left to the footballers themselves – and supporters who helped restore Marcus Rashford’s mural – to boldly go where politicians and polite TV interviewers have generally feared to tread with Tyrone Mings directly connecting the racist abuse after the Italy game with the utterings of Home Secretary, Priti Patel, who refused to condemn booing players for taking the knee.

Leadership from Westminster’s politicians? None.

Should the UK/Ireland joint bid for the World Cup 2030 go ahead in conditions like this, with those responsible unable to take the initiative, clear the air and admit their own mistakes?

No way. But of course, it will.

Because even though Boris and Priti have finally been banged to rights for stoking racial division and cynically escalating culture wars, all the aggro they’ve endured this week may actually have served a purpose: overshadowing their other grim achievements.

Callous cuts to the UK development aid budget that will inevitably result in deaths? Check.

Callous removal of the 20% Universal Credit uplift that will inevitably result in deaths? Check.

Forcing through Troubles-related amnesty against the will of all political parties and victims’ organisations in Northern Ireland? Check.

And triggering a clumsy and irresponsible masks free-for-all in England? Check.

WATCH: Ian Blackford calls out Boris Johnson for past racist language at PMQs

Faced with Boris Johnson’s brave decision to run away from trying to manage Covid, Sadiq Khan has announced masks will remain mandatory on all Transport for London services after July 19. But other cities with privatised transport systems lack the power to do the same. So, chaos looms. Argument and confrontation looms. So, too, the spread of Covid. Other councils, workplaces, shopping chains and transport providers are up in arms, demanding another U-turn from Boris so that masks are retained in public places, by law as they will be in Scotland.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s lost the support of his own Transport Secretary – who backs Sadiq Khan’s stance – and infuriated parliamentary staff by insisting they carry on wearing masks whilst MPs and Lords are only “encouraged”

to do so. And as for self-isolating after being pinged – well, according to the Daily Telegraph, Ministers in No 10 and the Cabinet Office don’t need to bother with that. They’ve dodged the system by “taking part in a trial” – a ruse first used by Michael Gove after returning from the fitba in Portugal.

Double standards? Check.

Hypocrisy? Check.

One rule for the bosses ... another for the workers? Check.

FINALLY, though of course the week isn’t over yet, there’s the crazy expectation that Scots would applaud the Prime Minister’s empty act of abolishing English Votes for English Laws.

Actually, SNP MPs decided not to vote on English-only legislation decades before Cameron’s cynical move to punish the Jocks in 2014. Evel had no problem to fix back then, and its removal makes absolutely no difference now – especially since the Tories’ 80-seat majority allows arrogant pups like Home Office minister Kevin Foster to claim Scotland would have to erect a “great wall of Gretna” at the Border if it joined the EU after independence.

One week, one gigantic evasion of the responsibility of office.

So, who wants to argue that the Westminster Government is fit for purpose? It is utterly hopeless.

Worse, the incompetence, cynicism and hostility to difference exhibited at the top, breeds hopelessness and callousness in the electorate. Without any moral compass on display from this government – ever – disengagement, aggression, social breakdown and ultimately violence become inevitable.

This terrible week – this hebdomas horribilis – there has been more moral and practical leadership from English football players facing attack than from the entire UK Cabinet – or Keir Starmer.

Scotland isn’t perfect. Indeed, that’s the point.

We’ve enough to put right in our own society without trying to offer long-distance fixes to neighbours.

It’s high time to gather ourselves and go, wishing progressive English folk well in their own mission to reclaim and rebuild a battered nation.

Sadly, it’ll be a long journey for them. So Scotland needs to get cracking.