Wednesday saw the UK Government publish its response to the Lord Advocate’s Supreme Court bid to obtain clarity on whether the Scottish parliament can legislate for a second independence referendum. I have had a lot of queries from people who are confused by the legal process so I thought I would devote today’s column to explaining where we are. 

Last week saw the publication of the second of the Scottish Government’s papers on Building a new Scotland, entitled “Renewing Democracy through Independence.” It received a mixed reception with the usual brickbats from unionist commentators. Whilst their criticisms are to be expected and can be safely ignored, some trenchant criticism from other sources is worthy of our respect and consideration, even though we might not agree with some, or even all, of it.

The week at Westminster has been dominated by the Tory party leadership election. While the Tories have indulged themselves in what is, superficially at least, a pleasing exercise in internal party democracy and debate, at Westminster democracy and debate have been further debased. The “caretaker government’, hastily assembled under the lame-duck PM Johnson, is busy pulling legislation from the parliamentary programme and refusing to submit itself to scrutiny.

What a mess. Out of power but still in office, Boris Johnson’s resignation yesterday and the announcement of a contest for the leadership of the Conservative party, brings an end to the sorry Johnson saga but does little to tell us about what happens next.