Regular travellers to Ayr will know them. The bridge folk. They wave Saltires at the traffic, and every now and then a driver gives them a honk. Whether it is an ironic honk is unknown, just like their identities, to me at any rate.

Every time I pass I make a mental note to stop one day and ask, but something else is always pressing, a deadline to be somewhere, and the moment passes. The road to Ayr is paved with good intentions.

I thought of the Saltire crew the other day when writing about the 10th anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum. Can you believe that come September 18 it will have been a decade since Scotland was asked the big question?

For some it will be a happy anniversary, for others less so. Maybe you’ve erased it from the memory, but I doubt it. Whether it was bliss in that dawn to be alive, or a right pain in the ask, it was an important shared experience and as such it deserves to be marked.

As part of BBC Scotland’s coverage, Yes/No: Inside the Indyref, the acclaimed three-part documentary from 2019, is to be shown again. Another repeat, but I think you’ll like this one. I watched a few clips online and, my goodness, how quickly it comes flooding back. Jim Murphy on his Irn Bru crate; the Salmond-Darling TV debates; the Nick Robinson stushie and the demo at Pacific Quay; George Osborne’s ultimatum ("If Scotland walks........

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