“It’s insane to think we’re different countries”.

You’re tempted to say the mask slips. But in truth there was only a mask if you didn’t want to see what lay behind it. There was barely a mask at all.

In 2014, it was all about a family of nations. A partnership of equals based on respect. The awesome foursome. Better Together.

Today, in 2022, we’re told that to even consider Scotland to be a country is the very definition of insanity. Which makes me part of the half of Scotland that is mental. I’m glad to be a fully paid up member of a club that genuinely believes in the mad notion that Scotland could actually do better than outsourcing its democracy to a political class and ideology that it has rejected since 1956.

But we are where we are.

And where we are is this. We’ve locked ourselves into the horrible position where we must ask for permission from another country’s parliament that doesn’t recognise either our sovereignty or our existence as a nation. We beg for a piece of what’s already ours.

And that – asking permission from people whose raison d’etre is to deny us – is the real insanity here. It’s like asking an arsonist to put out your house fire.

For the growing number of what Rory considers mentalists, we need to change our tactics. And quick. Because the very definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome.

To borrow from an article in yesterday’s paper, Westminster isn’t about to lower the lifeboats. So we must launch our own.

Keep the faith people. I’ll meet you further on up the road.