DISCUSSING Boris Johnson’s belief that devolution has been a “disaster”, SNP MP Drew Henry said the prime minister’s comments “underline the contempt that Boris Johnson and the Scottish Tories have for the people of Scotland”.

The reality is that devolution has been a disaster because it is the new political class in Holyrood who have nothing but contempt for the people of Scotland.

This is not a problem of the form of the parliamentary system in Scotland, the nature of Holyrood, the checks and balances or the committees who consult on legislation.

The problem lies with the nature of the people involved in these processes who sing from the same hymn sheet and believe that their job is to re-educate the masses and to make them “aware”.

To “change the culture” of Scotland, as they call it, one piece of legislation after another has been drafted and passed, usually with a huge majority of politicians, and almost always with the aim of regulating and changing the way ordinary people think and behave.

Whether it is your singing at football matches, the jokes you tell, the ideas you express in your home, what you say on Twitter, how you parent, what and how you drink or eat and the nature of your relationships – all are priority areas for the right-thinking politicians, professionals, charities, and activist groups who make up the new class in Holyrood.

More often than not these new laws and regulations are opposed by the majority of the people. But rather than this holding back those who are supposed to represent our interests, our disagreement simply proves to our betters how much more work is needed to make us all aware.

As a modern institution, Holyrood has adopted the outlook of the new elites in a more complete way and is almost always at the forefront of the trend to punish those, often with the force of law, who go against their re-education programme.

However, in public life, it is children, not adults who need to be “educated”. When a political class believes it is their job to make adults aware and to change the culture, we should recognise it for what it is, as a contemptuous and elitist form of social engineering and as a danger to anyone who aspires to have the freedom to self-govern not only their country, but their own lives.

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