IF Scottish independence were a garden, and the SNP the gardener, we’d be looking at a rather tatty, weed-strewn lawn, left ramshackle and unloved for far too long. Questions would surely be raised about just what the gardener had been doing to fail so badly in their duty.

Here we are, with a Tory government in London slathered in sleaze and hated by millions, and yet support for independence remains stubbornly unchanged since the 2014 referendum. Surely, Boris Johnson’s shame should have caused some sort of uptick in support? But no, and the SNP only has itself to blame.

The poor showing in polls, released on Wednesday - the day she became Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister - reflects badly on Nicola Sturgeon, as the custodian of independence.

YouGov’s polling happened between May 18-23. Granted, questions were posed a few days before Sue Gray’s Partygate report was released - also on Wednesday. However, everyone already knew about the drinking and lies, so it’s rather difficult to imagine that any poll carried out after Gray’s report appeared would greatly change figures.

The YouGov poll showed that when ‘don’t knows’ were removed, 55% of Scots backed staying in the UK, while 45% supported independence. That’s exactly the same result as eight years ago. We’ve gone absolutely nowhere as a country - yet all we seem to talk about is independence.

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