That's a good post, pete. We've got to be optimistic. Sturgeon is beginning to worry me though. If I lived in Scotland I'd vote for independence in any referendum. But though she can muster a majority in Parliament with the greens, because of bias in the electoral system in Scotland which favours the SNP she might just have slightly the wrong idea about her backing in the country for a referendum, let alone her prospects of winning it. Sir John Curtice calculated that independence-minded voters may represent just a smidgeon over 50% of the electorate. She might be better off letting Boris ban her attempts to get a referendum and moaning vigorously in a state of victimhood than ploughing on and losing the vote. There's no way that she could claim that a vote with a tiny majority, taking into account that there would be a lot of stay-at-homes, would represent "the will of the people." We've been here before, haven't we? I'm not sure that she's quite the canny operator I used to take her for...

On another tack, a nice bit of royal corruption is now rearing its head..."Haven't met Putin since 2003" my arse. Does he think we don't know all about the bush telegraph?