A very, very long time ago, as far back as
July 2020, a certain Jacob Rees-Mogg took great delight in mocking
the suggestion from an SNP MP that there might be circumstances in which
diverging pandemic policy led to a wish to close the Scottish border. Oh, how
droll he was in his suggestion that the SNP wanted to demand documentation from
people crossing what he saw as a wholly imaginary border between two districts
or areas of the same country. And how the Tory MPs behind him laughed, or would
have done had they not been banned from the chamber by social distancing
rules. Virtual laughter counts, I suppose. “A border,” he said, “is something that you may stop people
crossing”. “Even I,” he added, “am not suggesting that we make people
from Gloucestershire present their passports before coming into Somerset.”
Not for the first time, events have made a
fool of him. (Not that he needs events to do that; he generally manages to accomplish the same end rather well without them.) It turns out that governments can create borders
anywhere they want to, even around what they see as ‘districts’ or ‘areas’. Who’d
have thought it? The government of which he has somehow accidentally become a
part has been forced to admit this week that it will be implementing border
controls for entry into that well-known foreign country, Kent, and
demanding that some people present proper documentation before being allowed to
cross. In fairness, the Tory party has some form on the distinctiveness of Kent
– I seem to remember a certain E. Heath stating that he fully understood Welsh
and Scottish aspirations, speaking as “a man of Kent”. (Although,
apparently, for true Kentish folk, there is a clear distinction
between being a Man of Kent and a Kentish Man; perhaps there’s scope for a
further border across the county as well?) I do hope that the SNP won’t attempt
to make fun of Jake like he did of them. Revenge is a bad look; besides, he
doesn’t really need their help at all.
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