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There hasn’t been more raw hatred spewed at a Scot since Andy Murray said he quite likes to see England beaten at football.

Type the words Nicola Sturgeon into social media and so violent and misogynistic is the language towards her, it feels like reading a PhD thesis on psychopathic female serial killers.

(Memo to those who still think you’re witty calling her Wee Jimmy Krankie: You sound as original as someone still using catchphrases from The Fast Show).

Those on the right of mainstream media aren’t too keen either, now that she wants another referendum on Scottish independence.

She’s a “treacherous queen of Scots” whose head we should take off; she’s “irresponsible and hypocritical”; she’s a dishonest cynic who “will find any excuse to resurrect their (SNP’s) singular obsession: the break-up of the Union”.

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That last one was from a paper that has obsessed for decades on the need to break the UK’s ties with the European Union, and now rejoices on a daily basis that it has.

So why the loathing for someone who wants to follow their logic and let her nation reclaim its sovereignty?

How come London politicians leaving a foreign-based economic union because their country wants self-determination is a noble act, yet Edinburgh politicians wanting to do the same is a treacherous one?

I don’t want the Scots to leave the UK, but if I lived there, the breathtaking hypocrisy of Little Englanders saying we won’t let you be Little Scotlanders, would probably sway me to want out.

Because England is the least qualified country right now to tell another people to stop beating the insular drum.

Especially when it’s Theresa May , or Thatcher 2, saying Indyref2 will cause “uncertainty and division” and that “politics is not a game”.

(Image: Getty)

This from a woman who played a clever game of patience during the EU referendum, waiting for her rivals to shoot themselves Russian roulette-style so she was the one left to pick up the prize.

Then, having done so, appointed a fanatical cabal of hard-right Tories to dictate our EU exit, allowing them to leave without a trade deal if the negotiations don’t go in their favour.

No uncertainty or games being played there.

No taking the pish out of the Scots by refusing a referendum in the foreseeable future “because people wouldn’t have the necessary

information to make such a crucial decision”. Well, that didn’t seem to matter last June did it, dear?

Nothing is guaranteed to make your average Glaswegian bring up his fish supper than a Home Counties ma’am ordering the servants back to the scullery, instructing them to be grateful they’re provided for.

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Telling the Scots, 62% of whom voted to stay in the EU, “we should be working together, not pulling apart” when she has no intention of listening to their concerns, let alone working with them, is doing just that.

This time, due to weakened North Sea oil revenues , voters may feel even less inclined to break up the Union, but Sturgeon can counter that by saying

if Scotland stays in the UK it will be exposed to severe economic risks from Brexit.

Plus, she can ape the English nationalists who now detest her by passing off doom-and-gloom prophecies as Project Fear, while arguing independence is not about economics, but identity, self-rule and national pride.

And do it with this rallying cry that May has just gifted her: The English wanted their country back and got it. If you want yours back, they won’t let you have it.