Now that indyref2 – sorry “ScotRef” – has been declared, what kind of campaign is it likely to be?  Unionist commentators, predictably  forecast a more divisive and bitterly fought campaign than last time, and they may be right.  But that’s only because, as the Scottish Police Federation made clear, the 2014 referendum was almost entirely peaceful, democratic and law-abiding.

The only real disturbance in 2014 was from anger junkies on the internet – Britnats and cybernats hurling abuse at each other and JK Rowling accusing the Yes Campaign, unfairly,  of fostering anti-English racism.   Yet, not a single bullet was fired, nor a single punch thrown. The only projectile was a solitary egg hurled at the then Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy, while he was touring urban centres armed only with a soap box.

Compared with independence movements in places like Ireland or Eastern Europe, Scotland’s Yes campaign was a…

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.