We need to be clear on what will happen after October 31

We all know Guy Fawke’s Night has a close association with Parliament but this year there is every likelihood that it will pale by comparison to Halloween if our recently anointed PM has anything to do with it.

I’ve struggled with the constant refrain from Ian Blackford about the need to defeat Brexit and save the UK from itself, for me not only does it defy reason, the mandate that Johnson’s electorate have so comprehensively given him demonstrates that the English Tories will brook no interference in their Brexit. Even if the strategy is to attempt to mitigate the effects on Scotland, the Brexit process to date provides no example of reasonableness on which to base any such strategy. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that Brexit’s not the problem, it’s Westminster’s contemptuous treatment of Scotland throughout the entirety of the Brexit process.

The SNP commitment made in the 2016 manifesto was clear: we believe that the Scottish Parliament should have the right to hold another referendum if there is clear and sustained evidence that independence has become the preferred option of a majority of the Scottish people – or if there is a significant and material change in the circumstances that prevailed in 2014, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will.

I recently addressed my concerns as to my EU status on November 1 to my five elected reps in Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels – all of whom were unable to offer any encouragement or that there is any kind of safety net.

There are only three months left until we lose access to the protections of the EU Court of Justice from the sweeping powers contained in the EU Withdrawal Bill to amend any UK legislation including the Scotland Act. Yet I fear that Nicola Sturgeon will be powerless against a regime which even in its first week of office has demonstrated a ruthlessness against opponents both in the Tory leadership campaign and indeed against any such as truth Davidson and her historic tweets critical of the new head honcho. None of “her” people were deemed good enough to be the new High Commissioner’s henchman.

The speed of the installation of the new regime is impressive compared with the SNP strategy of gradualism/complacency since September 2014 and now appears to leave us defenceless against the belligerent BritNats with their new mascot and his emphatic weariness of the jocks on the other side of Hadrian’s Wall.

While we seem to have talked endlessly about opinion polls being favourable to our cause or the Brexit fog clearing before we can plan our course of action, the new PM for all his impressions of the bumbling buffoon has shown almost clinical incisiveness in creating a crack team of storm troopers to deliver probably the first right-wing coup in the UK.

For complacency against a ticking clock, what to make of Angus Robertson’s comments in Saturday’s edition of The National (Johnson’s Cabinet charm offensive in Scotland looks more like mission impossible, July 27): “... among open-minded and undecided voters there is a desire for clarity on Brexit before the next independence referendum in Scotland, but the focus group research showed a significant majority in favour of another referendum when things are clearer ...” Now when will there be time with holidays and party conferences taking up 60% of the remaining working days before the guillotine falls on our access to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights?

READ MORE: Johnson’s Cabinet charm offensive in Scotland looks more like mission impossible

With Johnson’s hands on the levers of power and the twin pillars of the unwritten English constitution namely the arcane, obscure and labyrinthine processes of the Mother of parliaments and the British sense of “fair play” he will be able to play fast and loose with what rules there are. That we are in the endgame of the UK is a given, that we are on a collision course with an unflinching opponent needs to be confronted.

So the least that our leaders can do for the massed ranks of the Yes campaign is to clarify what they intend to do for us on November 1.

It will be interesting for those of us sceptics on the “when” argument to see how much alignment in the coming days there is between reality and our theories. Then again maybe Angus and Progress Scotland have a better insight into how the loss of EU status impacts on our problems.

Iain Bruce
Nairn