Iain Macwhirter

The SNP should be basking in its recent formidable polling success. Not only does support for independence appear to be on the rise – with 56 per cent in favour, according to the latest Ipsos Mori poll – but there is evidence too that the SNP could win an outright majority in the next Scottish parliament elections. So why does the party appear to be falling apart? Three front bench resignations in as many days doesn’t look like a party at peace with itself.   The Westminster group of SNP MPs is roiled by divisions and rancour. The palace coup by the 34-year-old Stephen Flynn against veteran Westminster leader Ian Blackford has caused a whole lot of upset.

Only Gordon Brown could come up with a 40-point plan for constitutional renewal. ‘Less is more’ is not a principle with which the former Prime Minister is familiar. When his UK constitutional commission was launched in 2020 we were promised a ‘radical alternative to nationalism’ and a ‘constitutional revolution’ to remake Britain along federal lines. What has emerged looks like fiddly, modish reforms with lots of hubs and clusters and the inevitable citizen's juries. Plus, of course, more devolution to Scotland and a reformed upper house that Conservatives will no doubt portray as a new battering ram for the SNP. Has Brown’s review landed well? Sir Keir Starmer has certainly endorsed his proposed abolition of the House of the Lords.

So much for Plan B. Supporters of Scottish independence are putting a brave face on the emphatic ruling by the Supreme Court that – surprise, surprise – the Scottish parliament does not have the power to call a referendum on independence. Lord Reed cast aside the sophistry that ballot would be ‘merely advisory’ — so are all referendums under the UK constitution. And of course a referendum on Scottish independence would ‘relate to' the constitution which is reserved to Westminster. Sturgeon will now be unable to proceed with her referendum scheduled for October next year – not that anyone serious thought it likely to happen. Why anyone believed that the Supreme Court of the UK would facilitate the break up of the UK is a mystery.

'A man's a man for a' that' said Robert Burns. Well, perhaps not for much longer. The Scottish Parliament has recently voted in favour of legislation to allow lads to become lassies, and vice versa, merely by declaration. No medical intervention or diagnosis of gender dysphoria required. Under the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which enters its committee stage this week, Scots will be able to change their legal sex at ages 16 and 17 after six months of living in their new gender, and after three months if aged over 18. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has enthusiastically embraced the claim made by her coalition partners, the Scottish Greens, that ‘transwomen are women’.