www.thenational.scot/news/16994770.david-mundells-flip-flopping-continues-with-new-threat-to-resign/
DAVID Mundell is threatening to resign – as of 12pm, October 19, 2018.
Who knows where we could be in an hour? It seems the Scotland Secretary's position is a flexible one.
You might remember that at the start of the week, alongside Ruth Davidson, Mundell wrote a letter to the Prime Minister with a warning.
In their words, if additional customs controls were introduced between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, preventing a hard border in Ireland, they'd go.
In reality, what it meant was that they threatened to resign if Scotland got a Brexit deal that was less devastating than it could be.
“Any differentiated deal that puts a hard border down the Irish Sea they consider a resigning matter,” a senior Tory source told the Sunday Times.
"Senior Tory source" definitely ISN'T code for David Mundell and Ruth Davidson, of course...
Naturally then, two days later Mundell was saying he did not threaten to resign.
"I haven't threatened to resign. What I've said is that I regard the integrity of the United Kingdom as absolutely essential in these negotiations."
Clear on that, everyone? He's not flip-flopping, his threatening letter to the PM was just meant to help, and that senior source was totally wrong.
Imagine our surprise today when we saw the Telegraph's front page in Scotland: "Mundell may quit over EU transition."
This time around, he's sending a letter "interpreted as a resignation threat", warning that he won't accept an extension to the Brexit transition period that applies to the Common Fisheries Policy.
The UK will become an independent coastal state in March next year, but a 21-month implementation period means it will not negotiate with the EU as such until December 2020.
An extension to the transition period could take that date even further – but it would be a truly remarkable move if May were to cut out the fisheries policy from the proposals, as Mundell is asking her to.
In his letter, he even cites Scottish Government figures highlighting the risks: "On Brexit day next year we will become a coastal state, but we have now, to our annoyance, agreed to run on the rules of the CFP for an implementation period. That simply cannot be extended, it is not acceptable.
“We are watching the confusion that exists, we are already talking at the highest level, and our views have been made absolutely clear.
“Our biggest defence in all of this is an extremely strong line of irrefutable logic. We will become an independent coastal state with a load of rights and responsibilities and that will mean a very great deal. In the words of a Scottish Government report, £500 million a year, and 5000 jobs, are at stake here. We must get on with capturing that opportunity.”
If this is his idea of standing up for Scotland, it's a truly laughable one.
Taking his actions this week as a whole, it's beautifully short-sighted too – scared of giving yet more ammunition to the independence, he's hopping around, willing to accept a Brexit that would devastate Scotland if it keeps the country in the UK.
It'd be surprising, but this is a man who this week said he'd defend the Union "to his last breath".