One of the reasons the SNP has dominated Scottish politics for so long is that it is extremely adept at turning any crisis into a political crisis.
So it is with the recent figures revealing that the Scottish government has overseen a truly appalling rise in drugs deaths over the ten years it has been in office. Scotland now has the highest per capita rates in Europe, several times higher than those of England or Wales.
Yet if you ask Nicola Sturgeon, this is all somehow Westminster’s fault. The area is reserved and the Misuse of Drugs Act prevents Scotland introducing safe consumption rooms — so-called ‘shooting galleries’ — which she claims would make the difference.
Johnson was quite right, and certainly well within his rights, not to put the First Minister on his itinerary
This isn’t especially plausible. Whatever the merits or demerits of shooting galleries, other parts of the UK have managed to deliver much better results within the same legal framework.
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