The Daily Record has often expressed the view that we need to get rid of this rotten Tory government.
Now it is simply the case that Scots can no longer afford to have Boris Johnson in charge of the country for a moment longer.
Yesterday’s council elections took place with the cost-of-living crisis high on the agenda.
Inflation is rocketing, wages are struggling to keep up with rising prices, another big increase in energy bills is due in October.
Add to that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s pain-inducing rise in taxes and cut in benefits – at a time when he should have been doing the opposite.
To top it all, yesterday there was news that interest rates are set to rise, forcing hard-pressed families with mortgages to shell out yet more of their household income every month.
This hopeless Tory government made gaffe after gaffe over the last 12 years and has done nothing to prepare the country for the economic crisis we now find ourselves in.
The pandemic was a disaster that cannot be used as an excuse.
In fact, the state intervention that kept the economy going should be seen as a potential example of what can be done if the political will is there.
The country needs a UK government with plans to boost the economy, create well-paid jobs, tackle inflation and get the country moving.
Instead we have blundering Boris in charge, lurching from one avoidable disaster to the next.
Hopefully yesterday’s local elections around Scotland and the rest of the UK will be the beginning of the end for Boris.
Scotland can’t afford to wait any longer.
Red tape delay
When a Ukrainian mum came to Scotland to work on a farm last year, the Home Office cleared her visa in eight days.
But now that Anna Shutova wants to bring her seven-year-old daughter Alina from Poland to Scotland, she has faced a wall of red tape.
So much for the UK Home Office’s promises to treat this Ukrainian refugee crisis as an emergency.
The Record has written repeatedly about mothers being cleared for visas then being held up by delays for their children.
In this case, Anna’s visa delay threatens to end any chance of a life in Scotland for her and Alina – despite the fact she has a kind-hearted Scots family desperate to share their home with them.
This mother and child – and others like them – should immediately be given the visas they desperately need to restart their lives.
