My thoughts drifted towards Freddie Mercury as I pondered the upcoming Scottish elections – and the SNP, which hopes that the show must go on.

The Show Must Go On was also a particularly emotional song performed by Queen in his dying days.

“My make-up may be flaking; but my smile still stays on,” he sang.

As The Press and Journal undertakes a major survey of north-east and Highland voting priorities ahead of the May elections, some party leaders might be having similar thoughts.

Another painfully bittersweet Queen song – which became especially poignant as Mercury’s health deteriorated – was Who Wants to Live Forever.

Scottish elections morphed into Queen songs

It’s incredible how the computer wired in our brain switches with such ease in nano seconds from one subject to another.

Scottish elections had suddenly morphed into Queen songs.

I think it was the “who wants to live forever” lyric which pushed the button.

As I thought about the upcoming Holyrood election I remembered my conversation with a high-up advisor to Alex Salmond just before the momentous independence referendum in 2014.

If my memory serves me right Salmond’s Yes campaign had just leaped into the lead – a false dawn, as it turned out.

Salmond........

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