Gordon Brown says my nationalism's better than yours

There's really not much point in trying to analyse in any detail what the former prime minister said at an event organised by his obscurely funded anti-independence think tank, you'd be as well dissecting and explaining the political impact and consequences of "wibble wibble, woo."

However what it boiled down to in essence was yet another attempt to assert that British nationalism is better than lesser nationalisms, and specifically Scottish nationalism, by virtue of not being nationalist at all.

READ MORE: Gordon Brown confuses with calls to move from 'nationalism to patriotism'

This is apparently how Gordie is going to make Britain work for Scotland, with vapid and content-free soundbites and a dribbling political incontinence which is frankly embarrassing.

Labour need to put Gordie out of his misery, these days even BBC Scotland struggles to work up any enthusiasm for Broon's constitutional pronouncements, and that's like a doting granny refusing to go and see the wean's supporting appearance in the school play because she wants to stay at home and watch re-runs of Take the High Road.

I'm beginning to suspect that Mrs Mack would have far more cogent and relevant things to say about Scotland's constitutional future than Gordon Brown. She'd certainly be more entertaining.

Drakeford weighs in on DRS

While in Scotland to appear at a guest speaker at Gordon Brown's British nationalism, sorry patriotism, cringe-fest, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has joined in the criticisms of the Conservative government for attempting to torpedo Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme.

Drakeford told the BBC that if the Conservatives invoke the Internal Markets Act for the purpose of removing glass from Scotland's Deposit Return Scheme it would raise "very serious questions".

READ MORE: 'Why so late in the day?': Mark Drakeford criticises UK bid to block glass from DRS

The equivalent Welsh scheme includes glass and always did and Drakeford expects it to remain that way. He said: "We [the Welsh Government] jointly published a document with the UK Government in which they recognised that while they had decided not to include glass, we had and they signed that document with us. I would dispute the use of the IMA for these purposes and if they were to invoke it, there would be very serious questions for the UK Government."

He wondered why the Conservative government had raised its objections to the inclusion of glass in the Scottish scheme "so late in the day”.

He added: "Why are they doing this now when right up until now they have recognised the fact that we were going to include glass, because that's what the consultation said we would do? The English Government is the outlier here. The questions are for them and, of course, we will have to explore that should that be their decision."

It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Tories are doing all that they can to vandalise the Scottish scheme in order to manufacture another “failure” which they can lay at the door of the SNP, aided and abetted by a catastrophising anti-independence Scottish media.

Many other countries and US states have introduced similar schemes without great issue, but they don't have to contend with a British Conservative government which is hell-bent on wrecking Scottish legislation because they cannot countenance the possibility that Scotland can manage its affairs successfully without them.

Johnson piles pressure on Sunak

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has handed over his unredacted WhatsApp messages to the Covid inquiry, circumventing the Government's attempts to keep the messages secret.

The Cabinet Office yesterday announced that it was launching a legal challenge in order to prevent the inquiry from seeing the unredacted WhatsApp messages of cabinet ministers and government officials, citing privacy concerns.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson agrees to hand over 'unredacted' WhatsApp messages to Covid inquiry

The move heaps further pressure on Rishi Sunak, which was assuredly Johnson's intention. Sunak came to office promising accountability and integrity in government, but now looks as though he is hiding from scrutiny.

Some senior Conservatives have expressed their doubts about the wisdom of taking legal action to prevent the inquiry, which the Government itself initiated and which is headed by a senior judge – Baroness Hallett – from seeing information which may be relevant to the inquiry.

The science minister George Freeman has said that he thinks the government's legal challenge is unlikely to succeed, telling BBC's Question Time: "I absolutely have very little doubt that the courts will find that Baroness Hallett will decide what evidence she deems relevant, and then we'll get on with it.”

Former Downing Street chief of staff Gavin Barwell has said the legal action should not have been launched at all. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: "We've already waited too long to set this inquiry up, and I think people want answers quickly.

“So I think from a timing point of view, it is a mistake to prolong this process."

It's a remarkably inept piece of political mismanagement on Sunak's part, he has actually succeeded in allowing Boris Johnson to take the moral high ground in an issue related to the Covid pandemic.