You know something fundamental has changed when a British Prime Minister says they can’t imagine a Scottish independence referendum taking place within the next four years and the SNP response is to describe it as “maybe a little bit arrogant” (Stephen Gethins MP).

The molten anger, the how-very-dare-you, the pantomime of fury we used to witness from the SNP every time a UK Government minister so much as mispronounced a Scottish placename – that’s all gone. Impotent performative rage and endless cunning plans to force an independence referendum the population had no appetite for are tactics that haven’t survived the SNP’s reboot under John Swinney.

Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t categorically ruled out another referendum but he doesn’t have to. He says no one is raising independence with him as a priority.

And that’s the SNP’s real problem – not a Prime Minister who doesn’t want a referendum, but an apathetic population. Scottish voters do not decisively support independence (they remain split around 50/50 on the issue) and are much less enamoured of the SNP than they used to be.

Read more Rebecca McQuillan

They have many other things on their minds besides the constitution. Those are the real roadblocks to independence, those are the reasons John Swinney has stopped the posturing: there is no voter demand for a referendum and the SNP wouldn’t necessarily win one anyway. It would take an earthquake in Scottish politics to........

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