Alex Massie

Even in an age of ridiculousness there is something preposterous about the sight of so many prominent Leavers clutching their pearls in horror as they contemplate the possibility - the real possibility - that Andrea Leadsom could become the next leader of the Conservative party and, by golly, Prime Minister too. I mean, where do they think she came from? Who created her? Mrs Leadsom's credentials to occupy the highest political office in the land come down to one single fact: she is the most virulently eurosceptic candidate available. That's a powerful thing, however, and those Leavers who think their creation can be safely kept in the laboratory may yet have cause to regret their complacency. Because it's not as easy as that. Sometimes things escape.

So where are we now? Pretty much in the same position as the traveller who asks for directions to Limerick and is told, 'Well, I wouldn't start from here.' But we are where we are, for better or, more probably, for worse. Not before time it is slowly dawning on people in England that while this was very much their referendum it has consequences for the whole of the United Kingdom. They were warned this would be the case and, if it was not something that was ever uppermost in their thoughts, they cannot claim they were not told. Because they were. I don't dispute English voters' right to privilege their disgruntlement with the EU over their weakened preference for the United Kingdom to remain, well, just that. That's a choice but choices have consequences.

Tacitus argued that, after 68, 'the secret of imperial rule was revealed: an emperor could be made somewhere other than Rome'. It has taken metropolitan observers some time to wake up to the fact the same is true in Britain today. A star can be born far from London. The difference, however, is that not all roads lead to Westminster. It takes time for change to work its way through the system so perhaps it is not surprising that it is only now that we are seeing the fruits of devolution. In their different - very different - ways Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson have each demonstrated that devolution works. It has, at least in Scotland, established an alternative to Westminster. Careers and reputations can be made and won 400 miles from the House of Commons.

No, there was never a Golden Age of genteel and elevated discourse. Never a time when the fate of the country didn't seem to hang in the balance or when politics was ever played for anything less than all the marbles. Check old election-day copies of the Daily Mirror if you doubt this. Check the hammers and tongs with which Gladstone and Disraeli set about each other if you doubt this. Check the 1970s, when Britain seemed to be falling apart, or the early 1980s when terrorism and race riots and industrial action scarred the British political and social landscape. Politics is, and always has been, a contact sport and every generation has its low moment. But can we agree this might be ours? It is a reactive moment, nonetheless.

Events have a multiplier effect. And when they come in bunches the effect can be overpowering. This was already a sad and demeaning day, even before we heard the ghastly news a Labour MP, Jo Cox, had been murdered outside her constituency surgery in Yorkshire. Politics is, figuratively speaking, a contact sport. It is a hard business because it is an important business. It matters and it matters even more when the stakes are so very high. But just as class will out at the highest level in sport, when the stakes are the very greatest and everything seems to be on the line, so character reveals itself in politics too. Even, especially, when it really counts. A referendum is one of those moments when it counts.

Sometimes, in this game, it's tempting to over-complicate things. The lesson of Talleyrand's death - What did he mean by that? - has been all too well absorbed. And so we search for hidden meanings and a deeper truth whenever a politician says something. The real story always lurks beneath the surface, nothing should be taken at face value and everyone is always thinking three moves ahead. It's an appealing thought right enough. The trouble is it's also often nonsense. Sometimes even politicians just mean what they say. Nicola Sturgeon's visit to London yesterday offered a case in point. The First Minister insisted, as she has always insisted, that she wants the UK to remain a member of the European Union.

Something remarkable is happening in British politics right now. Something rotten and disgusting too. Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Her Majesty's loyal (sic) opposition, is trying to rewrite history. Here is what Corbyn said to Robert Peston at the weekend: "I do make the point that if you are to develop a peace process in the Middle East or anywhere else in this world for that matter, you have to have serious conversations and negotiations with all the forces involved. [...] Listen, the Northern Ireland parallel is sometimes a bit overplayed by nevertheless it is an important one. The successive British governments thought there was a military solution in Northern Ireland.

For people who profess to be utterly uninterested in the fortunes of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, SNP parliamentarians and the usual ragbag collection of independence supporters seem terribly keen to demonstrate that the so-called Tory revival witnessed on Thursday is no such thing. Hence this entertaining poster that's been doing the rounds on social media today. And it is true what it says: Margaret Thatcher was much more popular in Scotland than popular imagination - especially in Scotland - cares to remember. She and her party were certainly always more popular than the Scottish National Party.

Nicola Sturgeon has her mandate but it is a smaller, feebler, mandate than almost everyone thought likely as recently as 18 hours ago. The SNP remains the natural party of government in Scotland - a position it is unlikely to relinquish for the foreseeable future - but it no longer enjoys an overall majority at Holyrood. The nationalist advance, seemingly all-powerful and unstoppable, has not been stopped but it has been checked. Now you could hardly call winning almost half the seats in a system expressly designed to make a majority all but impossible except in the most freakish circumstances a disappointing result. And, indeed, the SNP share of the vote increased by a couple of points on 2011.

At the 1997 general election the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party won 17.5 percent of the vote and lost its last remaining 11 seats in Scotland. Scotland was now a Tory-free zone, at least in terms of its parliamentary representatives. Nearly twenty years later, the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party might, if next week's elections to the Holyrood parliament follow the pattern revealed by today's STV/Ipsos-Mori poll, finish in second-place. They may achieve this on little more than 18 percent of the vote. In other words, this is Schrodinger's Revival: it is both real and not real and it all depends upon how you look at, or think about, it. Has Ruth Davidson emerged as a vigorous, capable, Tory leader who can spread the Tory gospel to new congregations? Yes.

What is Theresa May playing at? I mean, it's one thing to treat the Conservative party's remaining members as fools but it's quite another to think the same of the rest of us. Her speech yesterday in which she attempted to carve a middle way through the Tory euro-forest has been generally well received. And, as a piece of political positioning, May's 'Reluctant Remain' approach allows her to be with the Prime Minister but not enthusiastically so and against Boris but not comprehensively so. It is, if you like, a Tory Goldilocks approach. All of which is all very well and good and if this is the sort of thing you admire it's the sort of thing you admire. Unfortunately, as a matter of policy, May's speech was garbage. That, actually, is probably putting it too kindly.

It's the rage I struggle to comprehend. There is, I am sure, an entirely reasonable case to be made for leaving the European Union, it's just that, for the most part, we've not heard it. Instead, the dominant feature of the Out campaign has been its anger. Many of these people really do seem to think this is some kind of struggle for national liberation. If they didn't they wouldn't talk about Britain regaining its 'independence'. Nor would they suggest that being a member of the EU is somehow incompatible with being a 'free' country.

The SNP launched their manifesto for the forthcoming election to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh today. 1,400 party members gathered for morning worship at the Edinburgh International conference Centre. Members of the media were forced to wear security bracelets emblazoned with the slogan "I'm with Nicola" which, given the contempt with which many nationalists view the press, was a nice touch. Your correspondent was not present, partly because he had forgotten the manifesto launch was taking place today but chiefly because none of it mattered in the slightest. The SNP don't need a manifesto to win this election. They are the masters now and there's nothing they or their opponents can do about it. Still, the SNP really is unlike other parties.