I’m turning into an English nationalist

One of the things I hadn’t anticipated about the pandemic is that it would turn me into an English nationalist. At the time of writing, the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have decided to place their countries under various forms of lockdown, while No. 10 has stopped short of imposing one on England with some Tier 3 hotspots. The explanation for this divergence is simple. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish executives don’t need to worry about the economic harm the lockdowns will cause because they know that Westminster will come to their rescue. Boris, by contrast, cannot afford to be so reckless because England has no equivalent sugar daddy. The devolved nations are acting like irresponsible students, running up massive debts on their credit cards because they can count on the bank of mum and dad to bail them out.

Actually, it’s even worse than that in Scotland’s case, because one of Nicola Sturgeon’s reasons for placing so much of the country under virtual house arrest is to whip up nationalist sentiment.