Every so often, even in this game, it’s worth conducting some kind of audit. Recent years have been tough, you know: Jeremy Corbyn. Brexit. Donald Trump. Even, albeit in different ways, Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May. The surprise should be that so many of us retain the capacity to be surprised. As that noted political pundit Muhammad Ali said: “Impossible is nothing.”

So if you haven’t questioned at least some of your assumptions it might be time you did. Consider the conventional wisdom on Brexit and Scottish independence. It is possible to think that Scotland’s preference for Remain strengthens the political argument for independence while also accepting that the complications imposed by Brexit make independence even more problematic than it was before. At the very