The prime minister’s visit is defined by pointless photos and lamentable statements
Nicola Sturgeon couldn’t have been more clear. If the lockdown rules prevented all but essential travel – she had banned herself from visiting a vaccination centre in Aberdeen – then it was completely out of order for the prime minister to make a day trip to Scotland to drop in on a testing laboratory in Glasgow and a vaccine production facility in Livingston.
Except that secretly the Scottish first minister must have been delighted that Boris Johnson had found time in his diary to dress up in a lab coat, get in the way of a cluster of technicians as he emptied some boxes, and bump elbows with various members of the army. Not so much Captain Hindsight as General Chaos. Because every time Boris comes to Scotland, the poll ratings of the Scottish National party – or the Scottish Nationalist party, as Johnson insists on calling it – go up a few points. The last 20 opinion polls have shown a majority of Scots in favour of independence.
