The SNP is a nationalist party but not all nationalist parties are the same. Nationalism exists on a spectrum. This is something upon which Alister Jack, the new secretary of state for Scotland, might care to reflect. Mr Jack complains that, like other nationalists elsewhere, the SNP “requires an enemy to make it thrive”.

Perhaps. In modern europe, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon may each be nationalists but beyond that they have little in common. Nor is Ms Sturgeon’s nationalism obviously comparable to the kind of nationalism espoused by Marine Le Pen in France. Where other forms of nationalist thinking are hostile to immigration and suspicious of the European Union, Scotland’s governing party enthusiastically welcomes both. Scottish nationalism may be a matter of