[p?c1=2&c2=6035250&cv=2.0&cj=1&cs_ucfr=0&comscorekw=Scottish+independen ce%2CPolitics%2CBrexit%2CBoris+Johnson%2CConservatives%2CScottish+polit ics%2CCoronavirus%2CHealth+policy%2CDevolution%2CNicola+Sturgeon%2CWale s%2CWelsh+politics%2CNorthern+Ireland%2CNorthern+Irish+politics%2CEngla -- Editorial The combination of Boris Johnson, Covid and Brexit is creating a constitutional crash that is waiting to happen in 2021 A demonstration calling for Scottish independence in Glasgow on 31 -- Ireland, and for the relationship between Wales and England. Brexit has played a pivotal role in creating this volatile mix. The vote in 2016 to leave the European Union was an English and Welsh vote. Neither Scotland nor Northern Ireland voted to leave. Scotland, in -- made an already large gap between the UK and Scotland even wider. The EU27’s unity during the talks contrasted with the UK4’s internal disunity. Brexit’s impact in Northern Ireland has also been profound, resulting in a deepened close economic relationship with the Irish Republic, and thus the EU single market, while Ms Foster and Ms O’Neill -- When Mr Johnson became prime minister in 2019, he gave himself the title of “minister for the union”. There has been zero evidence in his handling of Brexit that he takes this to mean the adoption of a more emollient approach. Instead, Mr Johnson’s unionism has proved more centralist and less pragmatic than the unionism of his two Tory predecessors, David Cameron and Mrs May. To Mr Johnson, the Brexit slogan of “take back control” translates into a project that aims to rebuild a Westminster-centred UK sovereignty, not, as Keir Starmer -- Conservatives, are open to this. The big question is whether the voters of Scotland are open to it too. But there is little time left. The chance of reform may have sailed with Brexit. The task of offering Scots an alternative union that they can believe in next May is already down to the wire. -- * Opinion * Brexit * Boris Johnson * Conservatives