Tories are drunk on Brexit lunacy with pints of wine

I should have known better. In truth, there is no idea so ridiculous that the current Westminster government would rule it out.

And so it came to pass just a couple of days ago that Rishi Sunak and the numbskulls who populate his Cabinet announced they were indeed going to re-introduce the pint measure, not just for champagne but for wine. Making the announcement on Wednesday, the Department for Business and Trade said the change was made possible by Brexit, as if that was a good thing.

Britain, we were told, could now toast the Brexit “dividend” with pints of wine!?

READ MORE: Review of the year 2023: What’s happened in UK politics?

Back in the real world, the rest of us realise “making Brexit happen” has brought us precisely no benefits, no “dividend” and a whole heap of pain. The same will undoubtedly be true of this latest wheeze. The new measure is reportedly optional. So too is another hare-brained idea to encourage producers of pint beer glass to add a crown.

But both are indications of the current thinking of a party driven to leave all the benefits of the European Union by a lunatic desire to return to the “good old days” when Britain was supposedly great.

And never forget there were enough people who believed them to drag Scotland out of the EU despite our 60% vote to remain. Remember too that, although we may not know any of them, 7.84 million people viewed the King’s speech on Christmas Day TV, propelling it to the top of the viewing ratings for the day.

There have already been indications that the Tories want to bring back imperial measures such as pounds and ounces. This, according to a UK Government consultation into the issue, would allow us to “capitalise on the benefits of Brexit”.

The consultation’s recommendations do not currently extend beyond pints of wine but, as I have already said, there are no suggestions too bonkers to be accepted by the current occupant of 10 Downing Street.

This is a government determined to put as much distance as possible between the UK and Europe as possible. A government determined not just to halt any extension of devolution but to roll back on those powers previously agreed.

For proof look no further than this paper’s front page story yesterday revealing that spending on staff at the UK Government Scottish Office has now soared above £1m.

READ MORE: Johnny Mercer panned for saying Carol Vorderman has 's*** lonely life' 

Of course, we don’t know exactly how many staff the Scottish Office actually employs. It says it doesn’t know the figure for that.

We do know that the £1m is just a part of the £11m it costs every year to run the Scottish Office. We do know that the Scottish Office under Tory Secretary of State Alister Jack is increasingly opposing the democratic decision of the Scottish Parliament.

The issues of trans rights and the bottle return scheme have seen clashes between Jack and Holyrood and there will almost certainly be more. A pint of wine is just another indication that the Great Britain philosophy has taken root in the UK. The longer we have to wait for the next General Election the more difficult it will be to shift, particularly because the Labour Party are giving no indication that it is at odds with the post-Brexit retreat back to the 50s.

This is not a future that resonates with Scots, who have increasingly been looking to the Scottish Parliament to represent their values, their beliefs, their hopes and fears.

Nevertheless, the Westminster election has a particular importance for Scotland. Of course, we want – desperately want – to be rid of the Tories. But more than that, we need to return MPs who will speak up for an engagement with the world rather than isolation, for humanity rather than inhumanity, for the values we believe in rather than those of a long-gone Great Britain.

Let’s vote for the fresh hopes of the future rather than a repeat of the failures of the past.