THE dictionary definition of a “dastard” is a mean, sneaking coward. Other definitions are wicked and cruel. Few would quarrel with these as a description of the UK government.

As each day brings news of yet another scandal, it looks increasingly likely that the British state is unrecoverable as it sinks beneath a tsunami of sleaze.

Even its most ardent admirers are losing faith. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, it seems, has had the dreaded signal from the “men in suits” that the game is up.

The Tory philosophy throughout the ages, and it helps explain their grip on power, is to be nonchalant about ethical standards and fair treatment for all, but to be ruthless when it looks like one of their own might damage their prospect of staying in power.

It has been said that to err is human. To prorogue, mislead, distract, deflect, deceive, falsify, offend, fabricate, distort, evade, misrepresent, disgrace, obloquy, insult, slur, smear, distort, mock, perjure, forge, abuse, and lie, is Tory.

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Of course, this form of gross maladministration is not new. And in the best of circumstances, it ought not be necessary to look to a UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) to bring about constitutional change.

However, it is also important not to rule out the possibility that such may prove necessary when negotiations are not possible because of the intransigence of the ruling power.

In the mid 18th century as the American colonists began their journey to independence, it was moral outrage that drove many of them to consider separation. One of the real challenges that confronted them was to express why they believed that constitutional change was not only desirable, but essential.

Interestingly, this sense of principled indignation was expressed vividly by American colonists who came from Scotland and Scots who taught the generation of Americans who brought about independence. This is covered in depth in the book: “The Scottish Invention of America, Democracy and Human Rights”, by Klieforth and Munro.

The American colonists gave the task of framing their reasons for separation to Thomas Jefferson. The latter owed the quality of his schooling to William Small, a Scottish professor of natural philosophy at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. From Small, he no doubt learned of the Declaration of Arbroath, and he also drew upon the works of Francis Hutcheson, reputedly father of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Compare these quotes in Hutcheson’s standard text on morals with Jefferson’s wording in the Declaration of Independence. Hutcheson wrote: “But as the end of all civil power is acknowledged by all to be the safety and happiness of the whole body, any power not naturally conducive to this end is unjust; which the people may justly abolish when they find it necessary for their safety to do so.”

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And Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles as to them shall deem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Beyond that, the influence of Scots on revolutionary Americans was widespread and profound. At age 16, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton were all being schooled by Scots who came to America as adults. At William and Mary college, Jefferson said he got from William Small, “my first views of the expansion of science, and of the system of things in which we are placed”. Madison at the same age was finishing his course of study with Donald Robertson. And Hamilton, in his sixteenth year, was sent to America by Hugh Knox, a Princeton graduate.

And this influence extended to the many Americans in the 18th century who were taught in Scotland. At this time there were large numbers of Americans in Scotland. Indeed, because of the fame of its medical school, more Americans attended the University of Edinburgh than any other British university.

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The first American medical school was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in 1765 and it was modelled on that of Edinburgh. By 1776, more than 50 Americans had been elected to membership of the Royal Medical Society at Edinburgh.

Scots founded four of the first six major American universities as well as the first three medical schools in America. A Scot, John Witherspoon founder of Princeton, was the only clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration of Independence.

These Scots were in many cases strongly committed to democratic principles and remained unimpressed by the need for a monarchy. It may be that they were familiar with the Gaelic saying, “Greater than the Chief are the Clansmen”.

Richard Haviland, who has moved from No to Yes, is this week’s TNT show guest on Wednesday at 7pm