Convincing people in an advanced economy to become the first to experiment with being cut off from their central bank, welfare state, expansive tax base, and much of the infrastructure of modern state administration was always a difficult pitch. Now it is a near impossible one.

Conclusion? The campaign for secession is thoroughly stuck. It is going nowhere, and even if support for separation did go up, it seems the thought of a return to the trench warfare of 2014 puts the majority of Scots off. Yet Sturgeon’s official position remains stubbornly fixed: never mind the will of the people or legal reality, Scotland will have another referendum before the end of 2023 whether it likes it or not.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters