People of Scotland, prepare to be addressed by your First Minister. Mr Swinney will speak to us on Wednesday and will lay out his vision for the years to come. Times may be hard, he’ll say, but one word sums up the hope he offers. Rejoin! Say it again: Rejoin! You feeling it yet?

The theme is Europe of course, and specifically the idea that we should be rejoining the European Union. Mr Swinney will say in his speech that becoming a member of the EU again is Scotland’s best hope for a more prosperous future. “Scotland is a European nation,” he’ll say, “and I believe our future lies within the European Union and rejoining the EU should be our clearly stated goal and national mission.”

None of this is a surprise – the SNP has been officially pro-Europe since the 1980s – but what does seem a little surprising is that Mr Swinney has chosen to make the speech now using the words he has. The First Minister has taken charge of his party when there doesn’t appear to be an obviously promising path forward for them and although Labour’s travails mean the SNP will probably be the biggest party in Scotland next year, what’s missing is the passion, a la 2014, the feeling that’s something is happening.

If this week’s speech is anything to go by, Mr Swinney appears to think a mission to rejoin the EU could be that something, a way to reignite the embers, but there’s a couple of things wrong with the plan. First: the timing’s all wrong. Second: it’s been tried before. And third: the illogic of it is eating the plan from within.

First: the timing. If we know anything about Scottish politics right now, it’s that the SNP is static at best, the Tories are well over their anti-independence surge, Scottish Labour’s recovery has been dented by the performance of the UK Government, and the only party showing signs of upward progress is Reform. Most of the switchers........

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