Boris Johnson and Jo Swinson mark huge threats to democracy

The Prime Minister wants us to think of him as a creature that we wouldn’t like when it’s angry. He could have saved himself the bother. We don’t like him right now. You think he might have chosen a fantasy figure who isn’t most notable for the mindless havoc that he wreaks, but it would appear that mindless havoc is what the British Government aspires to these days. It’s the one thing at which we can all agree that they have been wildly successful.

Back when he was prime minister, and hadn’t yet taken to pacing carpets in front of invited audiences of Labour hacks and representatives of the press in futile attempts to conjure up his own favourite fantasy figure – the federalism fairy – Gordie Broon spoke a lot about British values. British values were supposed to be those of democracy, fair play, tolerance, and respect. Allegedly these are things which distinguish the UK from other, lesser, nations, in a totally not nationalist at all way.

Oh no. Heaven forfend, for as we all know the foundational British value is that British nationalism is better than the nationalisms of other nations by virtue of not being nationalist at all. That’s the hoariest British political fantasy of all.

The painful contortions of the Brexit process and especially the actions of the British Government over the past few months have proven that the British state itself has very little truck with those supposedly British values which it preaches at the rest of us.

There was very little in the way of tolerance from either Theresa May or Boris Johnson for the concerns and fears of remainers. From both of them there has been zero respect for the unique place of Scotland as a part of the UK which only remained a part due to the promises and commitments made to it in 2014 that it was an equal partner in a family of nations and that only by rejecting independence could it remain within the EU. There’s been nothing that approaches even a loose definition of fair play as the Government has resorted to underhand tricks, lies, and deceit in order to ram its will through the Commons.

Democracy itself is threatened when a minority government feels that it can act as though it had a crushing majority and can suspend Parliament in order to prevent MPs from holding it to account.

It’s not just the Tories who are behaving in this deeply undemocratic manner. Over the weekend the LibDems announced that should they win a majority in the General Election which is coming, they will revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit. Meanwhile their Scottish leader Wullie Rennie alighted from the Number 17 Bus to Kelty and announced that under no circumstances would the LibDems agree to another independence referendum, irrespective of any mandate gained by the SNP in either Westminster or Holyrood elections.

Now admittedly the possibility that Jo Swinson is going to be the next Prime Minister is way up there with the notion that the federalism fairy is an actual living member of the Labour party.

But let’s pretend that she could win a majority, and for the sake of argument say that in that same election the SNP ended up with 50 or more seats in Westminster. This latter is a considerably more plausible scenario than a LibDem majority government.

The LibDems would then overturn the EU referendum without another referendum – even though due to the workings of the Westminster first past the post system they could win a majority with as little as a third of the popular vote.

They would also block a Scottish referendum even though the SNP have been elected with a clear and unarguable mandate from the Scottish people, a mandate which was arguably much clearer than a LibDem mandate resting up a narrow majority of Westminster seats. What the LibDems are proposing is that only LibDem mandates count. That’s neither liberal nor democratic. Sadly, that’s what we’ve got used to in the UK.

This week we will discover whether the UK Supreme Court will permit a British Government to get away with proroguing the legislature with, in the words of the Court of Session, the “improper purpose of stymieing Parliament”.

If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling of the Court of Session, which as has been pointed out was not made on any point of law specific to Scotland, then the constitutional crisis in which the UK is currently mired will become an emergency. Parliament will be recalled, and will most likely seek to impeach the Prime Minister should he not tender his resignation immediately.

However if the UK Supreme Court overrules the Court of Session, we will find ourselves in a UK where the Government can suspend Parliament whenever it likes, for however long it likes, and for whatever purpose it deems fit.

According to reports in the press over the weekend, there are rumours that the Government might even prorogue Parliament for a second time, although Downing Street was quick to assert that the comment was made as a joke. We live in such uncertain and febrile times in the UK that no one can really be sure whether it was a joke or not.

In 2014 the arguments about Scottish independence were largely economic. Economics is a topic about which is it particularly easy to obfuscate, to blind people with selective data, and to mislead and confuse.

No wonder it was the chosen battleground of the Better Together campaign. In the independence referendum which is most assuredly to come, the question of democracy and democratic standards will be front and foremost.

The Scottish independence campaign will be asserting that those supposedly British values of fair play, tolerance, respect for democracy and the rule of law will only be safe within an independent Scotland.

The actions of the British Government and British political parties have made that a very easy argument to make.