Not content with ignoring Nicola Sturgeon, Brexit ministers have now taken to trolling her. The Tory Defence Minister’s Michael Fallon’s “forget it” remark about an independence referendum was an indication of just how seriously the UK government takes the threat of independence right now: which is not very. Theresa May weighed in with her own assessment that the issue was resolved by the 2014 referendum.

According to Fallon, there is “no mandate” for another referendum because the SNP lost seats at the 2016 Holyrood elections and no longer exercises an overall majority. But this is to ludicrously underplay the SNP’s success in that proportional election in which it won more seats than all three of the unionist parties – Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat – combined. Anyway, the SNP has a majority in the Scottish Parliament for a referendum since the Greens are on board, and that is mandate enough.