Boris Johnson holes Capt Dave Cameron below the waterline

THERE was fury inside Number Ten this morning after London mayor Boris Johnson compared the capsizing of the good ship Costa Concordia to David Cameron's policy for charging ahead with the plans for a referendum on Scottish independence.

Boris fears that just like the waiters on the Italian cruise ship who were blithely assuring their guests they had nothing to fear - "It is an electrical fault. Tutto va bene, and what would madame like for the antipasto?" - the ship of state, HMS Great Britain, could also be heading for the rocks.

He says in his column today for The Daily Telegraph that Captain Schettino of the Costa Concordia had his arm "draped round some lovely woman" in the bar as his ship hit the rocks. Readers are left in little doubt that Boris sees his party leader, David Cameron, as the captain and GB as the doomed ship.

It was Captain Dave who forced the Scottish independence referendum onto the agenda. It seemed like a clever wheeze at the time, to defeat Alex Salmond before he could get his act together. Now, Boris and others in the Tory Party fear that Captain Dave has been too complacent by half.

Johnson - whom many true blue Tories would like to see replace pinko Dave - has holed the Prime Minister below the waterline.

While Cameron offers Salmond talks to discuss the timing and the legal niceties of the referendum, Boris says that, as things stand, the polls suggest the people are of Scotland "are too wise to go for full independence".

He doesn't say it, but if HMS GB does crack up, then Captain Dave, unlike Captain Schettino who saved himself, may have to go down with his ship. Glug, glug, glug. ·