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Dust off your flags, stick a pin badge to your lapel and prepare for heated pub debates in which you pretend to understand the intricacies of a currency union.

Like death, taxes and shambolic management of Rangers Football Club, another independence referendum is now inevitable.

There’s a general sense of dread at the thought of going through another constitutional war of attrition so soon after the last one.

Most Scots relish the prospect of a second IndyRef about as much as I fancy sitting between David Davis and Michael Gove at a dry wedding reception.

But it’s going to happen anyway.

Very few prominent politicians will actually admit to wanting another vote any time soon.

The Tories insist the question was answered definitively in 2014.

(Image: PA Wire)

Scottish Labour still seem to be suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from the last one.

And even Nicola Sturgeon is publicly prioritising her far-fetched plan to keep Scotland in the EU’s single market while part of the UK.

Logically, the First Minister has good reason to be in no rush for a repeat referendum. Polls suggest the unionist majority in Scotland is still roughly what it was in 2014.

The currency question still hasn’t been answered and the economic argument has been taken out the back and given a good kicking by the oil crash.

The UK leaving the EU, meanwhile, actually makes Scottish independence look more complicated and risky than ever.

Sturgeon personally has a whole lot to lose here. It’s an established principle that if a political leader loses a referendum they have to quit. A defeat would not only mean kissing goodbye to the independence dream but to the keys of Bute House too.

But if unionists were convinced they’ll win round two without breaking sweat, they’d be in the centre of the ring goading Sturgeon to bring it on.

Instead, they’re cowering in the corner grumbling about how long a generation is and cursing David Cameron’s calamitous Brexit blunder.

(Image: Parliament TV)

What we have is two sides who are terrified of defeat and uncertain of victory being marched towards another contest by forces they cannot control.

The UK and Scottish Government are miles apart on leaving the EU.

Sturgeon made a manifesto commitment to hold another referendum if the exact circumstances she now finds herself in arose.

She can’t wriggle out of it – and the UK Government can’t realistically refuse it.

Just as the World War I is said to have been caused by train timetables, Brexit has kickstarted a process that can only finish with IndyRef2.

So, when will it happen?

(Image: Getty)

Alex Salmond – the one major figure who really is desperate for another vote – is pressurising Sturgeon to aim for August next year.

Some Tories, most of them in England, want Prime Minister Theresa May to call the SNP’s bluff and force them to have it immediately.

I think both are unlikely.

There’s no way May will want to be fighting on another front during the torturous two-year Brexit negotiations due to kick off next month.

And she’ll ultimately decide the timing because Holyrood needs the UK Parliament’s permission to have one.

Offering Sturgeon a compromise where Scotland holds a referendum immediately after the Brexit deal is agreed but before the UK has officially left could suit them both.

My bet would be to expect another brush with the ballot box sometime in early 2019.