Those following Ian Blackford’s Twitter account over the past fortnight won’t have missed his recent holiday to the States. He began in Arizona on the 23rd, with a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon two days later. Monument Valley was on the agenda for the 27th, followed by Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah on the 30th. Utah got a second day’s exploration on August 1st, followed by Death Valley on the 2nd and Yosemite on the 3rd. Blackford finished up in San Francisco on the 6th. A lovely time enjoyed by all, not least Brits who avoided a whole two weeks of reduced preaching from the Celtic Crofter…

Imagine Guido’s surprise, therefore, when today’s National splash sees none other than Mr Blackford demanding Boris Johnson “comes out of hiding”, and accuses the PM of being “missing in action” during a cost of living crisis. One rule for a relaxed, tanned Blackford, another for everybody else…

“Every day people are waking up to warnings that the Tory-made cost-of-living crisis is spiralling out of control – with each report more worrying than the last. Yet the UK Prime Minister is missing in action.

“Boris Johnson might be on his way out – and rightly so – but for now he is still the Prime Minister, with duties to protect the people who live here. He must come out of hiding”

There’s another problem with Blackford’s demand other than the obviously hypocritical posturing: Boris’s holiday is already over – as one keen-eyed flyer proved via TikTok yesterday…

Presumably Keir Starmer would have been playing the same game had Boris not returned from holiday before him…