Now the SNP are in power their skin seems to have thinned

Scotland is a small place. This has many advantages. There is an intimacy to Scottish public life that can, on occasion, be charming. It is a place where everyone knows everyone else and this helps foster a climate of relaxed informality. Politicians, even more than elsewhere, are known by their first names. So it’s Nicola vs Ruth vs Kezia and this isn’t just because they are all women and all, in their different ways and to different degrees, quietly impressive figures.

But a small place, like a family, can be suffocating too. Intimacy is the other side of cosy. If that reflects itself in tight connections between politicians and those who cover them, it also manifests itself in the pressure politicians place on newspapers and, especially, broadcasters.

It is no secret, I think, that the SNP views the BBC with considerable suspicion. And with some reason, since the corporation undoubtedly subjected the SNP’s independence prospectus to greater scrutiny than it applied to the case made for the Unionist status quo.