Is Boris Johnson still PM of the UK?

In the eyes of many voters, Boris Johnson stopped being prime minister for the whole of the United Kingdom as soon as the Covid pandemic began to rage last March. Instead he appears to have shrunk to the status of England’s uncertain chief executive, taking orders from technocrats and scientific advisers.
North of the border, it is Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, who calls the shots. She tells Scots whether they can go to work, travel, or meet friends and relatives. Sturgeon’s
crisis press conference is broadcast every day to Scotland as if she were a head
of state.
Under a constitutional settlement designed 20 years ago to “kill nationalism stone dead,” health policy was devolved to the constituent nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Today nationalism is alive and kicking, which is more than can be said for the cohesion of the UK, now routinely dubbed the Disunited Kingdom.
Brexit, it is true, was instrumental in putting independence back on the agenda. The Scots voted
almost two to one to remain in the European Union. (As ever, the nationalists conveniently forget that more than a third of their supporters voted to leave.) But it’s the health crisis that has brought the breakup of Britain closer. London and Edinburgh’s Covid strategies — and missteps — haven’t been dissimilar but they’ve been made to look so by the politically savvy Sturgeon. Scots have now tasted independence from London and they seem to like it.
For one thing, Johnson’s personality is a major
negative for the Union. His comic caricature of an upper-class buffoon may tickle an English sense of humor — it travelled well in working-class constituencies in northern England during the general election — but it grates for the Scots, who find his style facile.
Even her enemies can’t fault Sturgeon’s crisp presentation. She cuts a dignified figure, respected for erring on the side of caution. By contrast, Johnson’s U-turns and unmerited boasts of “world beating” policies play badly. Last week, he visited Scotland to highlight the undoubted success of the UK vaccination program. According to local Unionists, the prime minister’s tone was all wrong. “He keeps telling us how grateful we all should be,” one veteran of the 2014 independence referendum tells me.
These communication failures matter: Recent opinion polls have shown
consistent majorities for independence. So what can the UK government do to turn the nationalist tide?

—Bloomberg