Scotland

Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead saw them win 45 per cent of the vote — and become stronger than ever. Since then, the SNP has taken almost every Scottish seat in the Commons and is preparing for another landslide in the Holyrood election next year — giving Nicola Sturgeon the power to threaten a second referendum. We may be just a few years away from a second battle for Britain. In her short time as First Minister, Sturgeon has established herself as one of the most formidable politicians in Europe. She has raised a rebel army that she inspires with talk of destiny and dreams — while her opponents drone on about banks and the Barnett formula.

Yesterday a new Scottish opinion poll reported that 58 percent of voters intend to endorse SNP candidates when the choosing time comes for next year's Holyrood elections. By any reasonable measure this is excessive, even extravagant. But there we have it. As it happens, I would be surprised if the SNP polled that well on election day itself but we live in a time of astonishment so even the previously impossible can no longer be reckoned entirely improbable. And, besides, what is the alternative? Nicola Sturgeon's greatest strength is that no-one else - or at least no-one outside her own party - can be thought a plausible First Minister.

Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead saw them win 45 per cent of the vote — and become stronger than ever. Since then, the SNP has taken almost every Scottish seat in the Commons and is preparing for another landslide in the Holyrood election next year — giving Nicola Sturgeon the power to threaten a second referendum. We may be just a few years away from a second battle for Britain. In her short time as First Minister, Sturgeon has established herself as one of the most formidable politicians in Europe. She has raised a rebel army that she inspires with talk of destiny and dreams — while her opponents drone on about banks and the Barnett formula.

Of all the places across the United Kingdom where David Cameron can expect a lukewarm welcome, north of the border must be one of the least likely. So Mr S was happy to hear that Cameron is at least now proving popular at one Scottish joint. Just as the Prime Minister may think Piggate is well and truly behind him, one bright spark has come up with a way to revisit the story just in time to cash in on the festive season. Cornelius Beer -- the Edinburgh-based drinks outlet -- have made their own special brew entitled FigPucker in tribute to the -- unsubstantiated -- claim in Lord Aschcroft's David Cameron biography that the Prime Minister had once enjoyed intimate relations with a pig.

When all else fails, I suppose, you can just plead for mercy. That appears to be the message emanating from the Scottish Labour party's conference in Perth this weekend. The theme, Kezia Dugdale says, is "Take a fresh look" at Labour. OK. [Awkward silence.] Now what? The thing is, you see, that "Take a fresh look" has been the unofficial theme of every meeting of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party since, oh, at least 1997. When you are reduced to pinching lines from the Scottish Tories you are probably in a position similar to the lost traveller seeking directions to Limerick who was told "Well, I wouldn't start from here". Here is where Labour are however and here is nowhere good.

The problem with Nicola Sturgeon is that she is, by the standards of contemporary politics, unusually straightforward. There is little artifice and even less deceit about Scotland's First Minister. What you see is what you get; what she says is what she mostly means. That is, even when she's sidling past the truth it's clear what she really means. And so, there it was, out in the open at last: a clear confirmation that Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour party are Nicola Sturgeon's useful idiots. Sure, there may not be any need for another referendum on independence before 2020 - not least because, as matters stand, that referendum might, like last year's plebiscite, be lost - but there will be another referendum at some point. And it will be won.