Grey days

The British constitution has taken rather too much of a battering from public school boys in both major political parties. Chilcot and Brexit have, in different ways, revealed the inadequacies of an education that encourages confidence unmerited by circumstance. And Oxford University might care also to consider whether its PPE degree really provides adequately profound training for those who would be our leaders. The most immediate consequence of a comprehensive failure of our previous political elite is that the women have emerged to try their hand at getting us out of the mess that the boys created. But, there are deeper issues and we need to consider whether, in the language of our time, our constitution remains fit for purpose.

The Union

The first problem is our very survival as a coherent nation. The SNP has little political option domestically but to push for a further referendum on independence even if falling oil prices make that financially even more bonkers than voting