A strong YouGov poll and Labour’s blunt rejection of a second independence referendum have reignited Scotland’s constitutional debate. But the telling question is not who is gaining ground – but who can still govern well enough to make their case credible, argues Herald columnist Calum Steele

The weekend YouGov MRP poll which pointed to a second SNP outright majority in the upcoming election has buoyed those who back Scottish independence. But the good news for supporters didn’t stop there, as Labour’s Wes Streeting took to the airwaves to announce “they’re not having one” (an independence referendum) when questioned on the poll on Sunday morning.

As a further motivator for the SNP and supporters, the timing and messaging was manna from heaven. It could hardly have been better. Few things bolster the “Westminster contempt for Scottish voters” narrative like “theys” and “thems” deployed from the heart of the UK Cabinet. Streeting’s clumsiness has already been clipped and shared thousands of times and will be thousands more in the weeks ahead.

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Strident unionists, as well as some of the more critical independence supporters, were quick to pounce on the Health Secretary’s words to either reinforce the superiority of the UK Government’s constitutional position, or the lack of John Swinney’s strategy for overcoming it – and I suggest neither is doing their cause any favours. Anyone who believes John Swinney and the SNP are in as equally weak a position as their (albeit feeble) “demands” for a........

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