POLITICIANS are said to be preoccupied by their place in history so I imagine Boris Johnson will want to be remembered as the one who led us out of the European Union.

After all it won’t be for his masterful handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Johnson doesn’t deserve all the credit for Brexit. Let us not begrudge mention of David Cameron – who some may remember was prime minister once. In many ways it’s all down to him.

Before the 2015 election he promised to hold a referendum on our continuing membership of the EU, confident that he wouldn’t have to do any such thing.

Either he’d lose the election, he figured, or he’d end up in another coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who would block it.

When he won outright he had to keep his promise.

It didn’t go his way so he and his best friend George Osborne quit – and both his successors in Downing Street vowed to “get Brexit done”.

Now it seems certain that Johnson and Cameron won’t just be remembered as the architects of Brexit. They will also be held responsible by history for the break-up of Britain.

The border down the Irish Sea is pushing Northern Ireland closer to the EU and further from the UK. But Scotland’s departure from the UK is far more imminent.

Having been dragged out of the EU against its will by English voters, it is now certain to drag itself out of the UK so it can rejoin.

The last 17 opinion polls have also shown that most Scots now want independence.

Johnson is denying them another referendum on it for now but he can’t forever. If, as expected, the SNP win another hefty majority in the Scottish parliament elections in May then denying it looks unfair, and impossible.

If we have to leave the EU because most UK voters want us to, don’t the Scots have the same right to leave the UK if most of them want to?

Of all the nonsense I’ve read about the likelihood of an independent Scotland, the most nonsensical was from a former adviser to Theresa May, who said it was all down to devolution – as if it put the idea of independence into Scottish voters’ heads for the first time.

It was not only deeply patronising to Scottish people, to assume they’d never have thought of it otherwise. It also shows a breathtaking ignorance of history.

When the whole of Ireland was part of the UK there was a strong movement for home rule – devolution in other words. It wasn’t for leaving the UK, but for having a parliament in Dublin to look after Ireland’s own affairs.

When it didn’t happen after years of promises and delays, it was then that Ireland opted for a complete break from Britain, with the Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent War of Independence.

There’s no knowing what would have happened if Ireland had been given home rule. But not granting it definitely led directly and swiftly to separatism.

If Scotland hadn’t had been given devolution, the separatist movement would be vastly bigger than it is now.

Brexit rather than devolution is the big driver for Scottish independence, but it’s not just down to Cameron and Johnson. Another Conservative prime minister deserves some of the responsibility for the coming break-up of the UK, and that’s Margaret Thatcher.

The SNP’s previous high point was in the 1970s when North Sea oil was discovered off the Scottish coast – and Scots naturally felt it was their oil.

Thatcher spent all the revenue from it on her unemployment benefit bill.

Then she added insult to injury by imposing the notorious poll tax on Scotland before extending it to the rest of the UK.

Scots had never voted for the Tories and yet they had to bear the brunt of their policies. Why wouldn’t they want to break away?

Personally I have no problem with the idea of an independent Scotland. And I wouldn’t blame them for departing from the UK.

But then I don’t really think anyone on this side of the border is entitled to a view on it. Scotland belongs to the Scots. If they decide to be independent it’s up to them, not us.

It is ironic that the likely break-up of the United Kingdom has been caused by Margaret Thatcher, David Cameron and Boris Johnson – leaders of what, in its full official name, is called the Conservative and Unionist Party.

The Conservative and Unionist Party has done more to undermine the union than anyone else.