Samuel Morrison: The response to Covid-19 shows how devolution has fundamentally weakened the United Kingdom

We have had constant carping at and criticism of Westminster with zero appreciation for the generous support from the Treasury, the vast qualities of PPE delivered by London — so much indeed that the health minister was able to send some to ease shortages in England — or the support of the UK military, demonstrated for example when the life of a seriously ill patient was saved after they were flown from Northern Ireland to the mainland by the RAF.

Tellingly, while reported in the News Letter the RAF story was ignored by most other media outlets.

Let’s not forget that the rational for the lockdown was to protect the NHS while the service was scaled up to deal with an expected flood of cases.

Now NHS provision is being scaled back with the Nightingale being put on standby because, providentially, it was largely empty.

Yet the devolved regions have shown no initiative or drive to get life back to something approaching normal.

Scotland’s initial plan was devoid of detail. Now, shortly after blasting the prime minister’s plan, the SNP government is slowly moving in the same direction as Westminster.

The Welsh plan does not have any dates. Stormont’s plan similarly contains no timescale.

The executive tells us this is because they want to be free to follow the science yet we know from the public comments of the chief scientific officer in the middle of last week that the R figure was low enough to justify relaxations in the restrictions.

The executive didn’t act until after the weekend.

Why? Did Sinn Fein need to go off to consult the Army Council about whether people could attend drive-in services?

All the devolved administrations are happy to attack the Tory government while at the same time only remaining solvent because of money from that self-same Conservative government.

Nationalists who once pointed favourably to the EU in contrast to the Westminster approach always ignored the fact that the pandemic resulted in EU nations looking after their own with many on the continent questioning the value of Brussels.

In Italy, for example, 88% of those surveyed felt the EU had failed to support their country.

Now, as Italy, Spain, France, Germany and other EU member states open up again there is no urgency to follow their example.

The common sense Westminster slogan is mocked as confusing. The fact that the darling of EU fanatics, ‪Emmanuel Macron, is using an almost identical slogan in France (Save Lives. Remain Prudent.) passes without comment.

Unionists in Northern Ireland are rightly alarmed by the prospect of an Irish Sea border under the Brexit deal. Now, due to the pandemic, borders are going up within Great Britain.

On Tuesday of last week the Western Mail ran the front page headline ‘Stay out of Wales, English warned’. Substitute the word English for any other nationality and there would have been cries of xenophobia from the rooftops.

One could already write the script for what is coming next.

If the prime minister’s attempt to re-start the economy, get the schools back and return life generally in England to something approaching normality is successful devolved administrations will pat themselves on the back regardless and say they didn’t take any risks.

I heard one commentator on the BBC praising Stormont’s plan. Why? Because we can sit back and see what happens in other places as they open up and learn from their mistakes.

Yea, sure why not? The English can pay for it.

What happens when the world goes into the now seemingly inevitable depression?

That too will be the fault of Westminster and all the billions spent in recent weeks (and the billions more to be spent right up to October) will be forgotten.

Twenty years since that constitutional vandal Tony Blair decided to break up a Union which had served us well for centuries because he thought Labour would rule Scotland and Wales regardless of how England voted the consequences of giving the regions power without responsibility are now clear to see.

And make no mistake about it — power without responsibility is exactly what devolution without major tax raising powers or an independent monetary policy amounts to. But who in their right mind would give Stormont, which couldn’t run a heating scheme, powers of that magnitude?

It’s sobering enough to think of the fundamental freedoms it currently has the power to withhold.

• Samuel Morrison is a member of Traditional Unionist Voice