It’s remarkable the Nationalist hierarchy thought it could get away with not saying how many eligible voters there were in the leadership contest.
Can a new leader persuade Nationalist activists to keep waiting, and waiting? Or will they be bounced into a kamikaze bid for separation?
The First Minister has a powerful gift for weaving myths about herself, but should not be allowed to write the first draft of history alone.
Time and again, their more muscular – to borrow a phrase – approach to Westminster’s prerogatives has paid off. Yet they don’t set Union policy.
They didn’t get a surge when the UK Internal Market Act passed and saw only a temporary one after their Supreme Court defeat. What about now?
The Foreign Secretary might be inclined to roll over, as he is on the British Indian Ocean Territory, but he can’t order Stormont back to its feet.
The UK’s equalities framework looks set to fragment because whilst the Equality Act is reserved, the Gender Recognition Act is not.
It was made at the same time that the police were opening a fraud investigation into the party over alleged misuse of its referendum fighting fund.
The first and best allies of the campaign for independence have always been pro-UK politicians who think they can buy it off.
The Scottish Conservatives claim that £1.5 million of public money has been spent trying to build the SNP’s case for independence.
Salmond bowed out after taking his shot at separation in 2014; his successor may feel that she can’t step down without doing the same.
The Prime Minister has no way of even trying to ensure the dispute is over by April except capitulating to the EU.
Chris Heaton-Harris will probably call elections sooner rather than later, but another share of his department’s dwindling stock of credibility is lost.
Also: the ERG fire a shot across the Government’s bows following press speculation that ministers could fold on ECJ oversight in Northern Ireland.
Even now, the SNP can’t get the voters to the point of backing the break-up of the UK – and a Labour government wouldn’t make it any easier.