Up to now, although Unionists reeled with every successive Scottish poll, there was some ground for hope. Surely the Nats could not keep up this level of intensity? After all, there were still five weeks to go. But Ms Sturgeon has supplied fresh momentum. The journalist Claud Cockburn said that the average Irishman was three double whiskies ahead of the average Englishman in political consciousness. In recent months, a similar claim could be made about Scotland. But Nicola Sturgeon does not sound as if she has spent too long in the pub. Her down-to-earth tone will help to hide the fact that the underlying economics are nonsense. “Our Lassie showed the English what for,” the Nats will be saying this weekend. There may not be time for the hysteria to subside.