By Rab Bruce’s Spider

The tide of public opinion may have turned against Boris Johnson and his Tory cronies, but there seems little prospect of them stepping down any time soon. Most of those who dared speak out previously have stepped back into line, most notably the spineless Douglas Ross who now insists that we cannot get rid of a Prime Minister in a time of crisis. As many people have pointed out, the UK changed its Prime Minister during both World Wars, so to use the Ukraine war as an excuse to keep Johnson in power is laughable.

Comedian Frankie Boyle has attracted some criticism for comparing the Tory Government to fascists, but his comparison is, in my view, justified. As I’ve said before, if you check Umberto Eco’s list of the traits of a fascist government, the UK ticks most of the boxes.

And still the Tories appear on TV and Radio to insist that Boris Johnson is the right man to lead what they still insist on saying is a country instead of a sovereign state comprised of three countries and a province. To be fair, that’s quite a mouthful to mention each time, and "country" is a useful abbreviation, but it does serve to reinforce the "One Nation" view so beloved of Tories.

But let us not forget that many ordinary citizens were given substantial fines for breaking Lock Down rules, while Johnson seems to have got away with little more than a slap on the wrists. This is a man who does not recognise a Party when he walks into it, and who seems not to realise that people were not supposed to gather together indoors at all, even though he was the one making the rules. And still Tories think a man who has such limited powers of perception is the right man to lead their country. It really is pathetic, but the way the Tories are behaving is just the sort of behaviour you can expect from a Right Wing extremist government. Be in no doubt that they will say or do anything to retain power. Democracy in the UK has always been something of a veneer, but now it is barely recognisable at all. The Tories are behaving in ever-increasing authoritarian ways, and we should not expect them to stop now. They will continue to tell lies and half-truths in order to mislead the public, and they will continue to make life worse for the vast majority of UK citizens. Sorry, we are subjects, not even considered worthy of being called citizens. That ought to tell you a lot about UK society.

The latest policy, to send refugees to Rwanda, is so abhorrent I had to check whether it was an April Fool’s joke. But, no; they really are that cruel and heartless. They detest coloured people so much that they are prepared to spend millions of pounds to send them overseas to a country which is hardly renowned for its observance of human rights. And be in no doubt that this policy is aimed at coloured people. I doubt very much that any Ukrainian refugee will be sent to Rwanda.

Why Rwanda anyway? Probably because no other country would go along with this barbaric idea. It harks back to the time of deportation which only Tories would regard as a golden age. Some people are saying that announcing this heartless policy is to serve as a distraction from Partygate, but I’m not so sure. It may help deflect away from it, but they can use Royal announcements or Russian jets flying close to UK airspace as distractions. This policy is, I think, intended to appeal to their hard core supporters, the very people Frankie Boyle was talking about when he said that the reason we don’t have a fascist Party in the UK is because those voters who would support such a regime are happy with the current Government. Sadly, I think he was spot on with that assessment.

Will this be the last inhumane announcement from the Tories? I rarely engage in making predictions, but I think it is a pretty safe bet they will come up with something equally bad or even worse before too long.

It really is time Scotland escaped from this madness. Becoming a normal country will not solve all our problems, and it will raise many challenges, but if other countries such as Norway and Malta can manage it, I don’t see why Scotland can’t. And let’s hope it happens before the Tories drag us completely down with the sinking UK.