Ever since the Supreme Court ruled in November 2022 that the Scottish Parliament could not hold a unilateral referendum on breaking up Britain, Scottish independence has been dead in the water. Nicola Sturgeon went, Humza Yousaf came (and went not too long after), the party lost all but a handful of its Commons seats in the general election, and John Swinney, a man with the personality of a pedestrian crossing, limped home in May’s devolved elections on the SNP’s lowest vote share in two decades. Beset by headlines about women banged up with rapists, missing ferries, and embezzled camper vans, the Nationalists just couldn’t catch a break. Until now.
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Andrew Gilligan
Exposed: The Cambridge University PR attacking Jason Arday’s black critics
Prime Minister’s Questions is a minefield. The best tackle it strategically, weaving around potential ordinances with quick wits and a light foot. The less capable alternate between tiptoes and sprints as their nerve allows, their thoughts consumed by reaching the other side in one piece. Andy Burnham took a unique approach to PMQs on Wednesday. By ‘unique’ I mean ‘unusual’, and by ‘unusual’ I mean ‘disastrous’. Instead of dodging the landmines, he volunteered his foot for one, and one of the most explosive there is.
