As a new year begins there have been several interesting interventions in the debate about Scotland’s constitutional future.

Some have been arrogant and ill-informed such as Adam Boulton’s comment that Scots should not criticise Blair’s knighthood because he “gave Scotland back its Parliament”. As a former political correspondent, he really ought to know that Blair did so with reluctance and only because of the irresistible groundswell of support that had built up in Scotland over 18 years of Tory rule.