My unsolicited advice to Kemi Badenoch

If there are two things new leaders of political parties dread, it’s unsolicited advice and Scotland. The advice because, even when it’s helpful, and it’s mostly not, it underscores the sheer volume of work that lies head. Scotland because, in recent years at least, its politics have been so volatile and unpredictable that anyone stepping into it, especially an English politician, has done so only under duress.

I intend to combine these two political headaches by offering Kemi Badenoch some advice on Scotland, but to make up for it my advice draws on the example of one of her political heroes.

After Margaret Thatcher took over the leadership of the Conservative party, she tore up the party’s Scotland policy, which had been steered in a pro-devolution direction by Ted Heath. Thatcher recognised the creation of a devolved Scottish assembly to be an act of self-harm by Westminster, which would undermine Parliament’s political authority in Scotland and would only encourage nationalism.