BORIS Johnson has taken a leaf of the Donald Trump Bigly Book of Leadership.

The sight of both men at the G7 summit last week was one that few would have said was possible five years ago.

Like Trump, Boris Johnson has risen to power despite some ridiculous statements and outrageous opinions and unacceptable behaviour.

It obviously means those views are shared by more people than is comfortable for the opponents of both men.

It hasn’t taken Johnson long to try and stamp his authority on the political system.

By deciding to suspend parliament to prevent MPs blocking a no deal Brexit he is basically telling Parliament. ‘I’ll do what I want. Try and stop me’.

It is a move that Trump himself would have been proud of.

By taking this action it shows the Prime Minister must have been worried that MPs, including many of his own party, would get together to change the law to ensure no deal did not happen, which could force him back to Brussels to ask for another extension. A trip he would not relish having to make.

He certainly wouldn’t have arrived on a zip wire waving Union Jack flags.

The justification that Johnson and his cabinet ministers have parroted on TV is that suspending parliament has nothing to do with Brexit but about a new legislative programme.

These are the same people who promised £350m a week for the NHS if we leave the EU.

What has happened was the Prime Minister spotted a threat and found a way to nullify it and moved quickly while the opposition was not expecting it.

In doing so he does risk a vote of no confidence but that is unlikely to succeed and he knows it.

Boris Johnson may play the fool and act like a buffoon at times but he is certainly not stupid.

Those who have characterised him as a bumbling idiot who surely couldn’t be Prime Minister have seriously underestimated him.

Boris Johnson has shown throughout his career that he is shrewd and knows when to make his move.

He knew he couldn’t take on David Cameron as Tory leader when in opposition so off he went to become London Mayor in 2008 an election he won twice.

He came back as an MP in 2015 knowing he needed a seat if he had leadership ambitions in the future.

Her declared he was not the man to take over when Cameron quit in 2016 because he knew he didn’t have the numbers then.

Three years later he was unstoppable. It points to a calculating politician aware of the risks but also sure of the outcomes.

Unlike Cameron, who was reckless with the EU referendum in his 2015 manifesto.

He is now on a collision course with Parliament for who is in charge.

At some point it is likely Boris Johnson will go too far and he will be brought down.

What remains to be seen is whether this is the time.

RUTH Davidson’s resignation highlights a difficulty devolution created for Labour and the Conservatives in Scotland.

While in the most recent years it has been Labour that has struggled with it most, the impending Scottish Tories leadership election will bring it into sharp focus for whoever succeeds Ms Davidson.

The question is, who’s in charge?

Before, and after, devolution there was no such thing as Scottish Labour leader. From Donald Dewar to Iain Gray there was only a Labour leader in the Scottish Parliament.

Even as First Minister, Mr Dewar, Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell were not officially party leaders.

Johann Lamont blew the Scottish leadership myth apart when she declared Scotland was treated as a branch office and the SNP have never let Labour forget it.

Now the divisions between the Conservatives in Scotland and the rest of Britain are coming to the fore.

Suggestions that the Scottish Party could split from the UK and be autonomous are being taken seriously.

Ruth Davidson’s entire leadership was built on protecting the “precious union” from the SNP and little else.

Any cross- border conflict and potential split will make their defenders of the union message a more difficult sell.

If you can’t unite a party how can you unite four countries as one.

Can Labour and the Tories continue to be Scottish parties within a UK party?

Maybe it’s time to be one or the other.