Is it just me or does Scotland feel a bit 1990s just now? I watch John Swinney, I speak to people in the SNP, I see the predictions for the next election, and the same parallel keeps occurring to me. Mid-1990s. A party past its peak. The bucketfuls of trouble that come with a long time in office. An electorate that’s a bit tired of you. And Oasis selling concert tickets. I guess what I’m saying is the First Minister is facing his own version of the ‘90s. He is the SNP’s John Major.

To be clear, this is not meant to be an unflattering comparison: John Major was – like John Swinney – able, personable and pragmatic. But, also like John Swinney, when John Major came to power, he was landed with a set of circumstances that even the best would struggle with. It’s the political law of entropy: systems decay, things go wrong, and both Major and Swinney were landed with the legacy of a leader who’d dominated everything for years. Which can only mean one thing: if John Swinney is John Major, then Nicola Sturgeon is Margaret Thatcher, and yes, I know I’m pushing things a bit but it’s too funny a comparison to leave out so there it is.

You may also have noticed, if the 1990s parallel has occurred to you too, that John Swinney appears to be trying to handle the situation much as John Major did 30 years ago. Look at the First Minister’s speech to the SNP conference the other day. There was a lot of the usual stuff – complaints about Westminster, a commitment to wipe out poverty, the promise of a better future under independence – but it always helps I think to count the number of times certain words crop up and this year’s tally is interesting. The word “independence”: 14 times. The words “Nicola........

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