Occasionally Humza Yousaf says something useful. Useful is not to be confused with sensible but rather information which actually tells us something. Remarkably he has in recent weeks done it twice, sadly on both occasions the usefulness is accidental.

The first bit of useful information was contained in the latest in the series of tedious papers on what happens to various things in the theoretical Peoples Republic of Fair Green Gender Neutral Scotland. This is the series which dodges the difficult questions but gives imaginary and unworkable solutions to what would be real problems.

The most recent paper, on citizenship in a separate Scotland, actually makes some sense. What it broadly says is that if your best friend came to Oban once on holiday and you are prepared to wear to kilt you can be in. It doesn’t quite say that but the meaning is clear – if you want to come you can.

The really interesting bit though is what would make you an automatic citizen on day one, no questions asked. There are two routes, first if you are a resident in Scotland on the great day of separation or, second – and this is the key one – you were born here.

The Scottish Government therefore explicitly proposes that if you were born in Scotland you would (unless you opt out) be a citizen of Scotland.

So why couldn’t all such citizens vote in the 2014 referendum?

Read more: The UK Government wants to do its best for Scotland. The SNP doesn't

One of the most irritating things about the never-ending focus on whether Scotland should leave the UK is that we are supposed to swallow the Nationalist propaganda that not far off half of Scots want that to happened. They don’t.

In 2014 a complacent UK Government let Alex Salmond away with a highly biased question - “Yes” always has an inbuilt advantage over “No” in eliciting a response to any question and “Independence” is also a lot more vote friendly then “Separate” or “Leave”.

Added to this bias 16-year-olds were added to the electorate because they were reckoned to be Yessers but the legitimate claims to be able to vote of those born in Scotland but who happened to be living in England or further afield and, horror of horrors, might just be more inclined to see Scottish separation for the lunacy it is, were ignored.

If you ask Scots whether they think Scotland should Remain In or Leave the UK the proportion who say Leave has never got out of the 30s in percentage terms. Take account of the impact of an electorate which included Scots living outside Scotland who could be automatic Scottish citizens and the proportion wanting to go is probably about one third. The SNP claim that it is almost there in persuading a majority of Scots that leaving the UK is a good plan is simply not true.

The second useful bit of information, this time directly from Mr Yousaf personally, is what he said recently about tax. “There are decisions for us in relation to the budget to take in and around tax, and I’ve said previously that we need to be as progressive as we possibly can be on tax”.

Let me explain what “progressive”, a word the SNP Government uses nauseatingly often, means in relation to tax, It means more.

The SNP will tell you that we have a more progressive income tax system in Scotland than England because, of course, we are much nicer, kinder, fairer more lovely people here.

This fiction is preserved because between a taxable income of £12,571 and £14,732 you pay tax at 19% in Scotland but 20% in England. The maximum benefit to you is 42 pence per week. Unfortunately, once you start earning over £25,689 you pay tax at 21% in Scotland compared to 20% in the rest of the UK. Worse still if you earn between £43,662 and £50,270 you pay more than twice as much on that slice of income if you live here, 42% whereas in England you pay 20%.

The Scottish Government puts up tax rates because it likes spending money and it is not honest with the Scottish population that if we all want better public services (except that we don’t actually get them) we must all pay for them.

Around 10 per cent of the adult Scottish population pay Higher Rate tax and around 30,000 pay the Additional Rate of 47%.

Yousaf wants to go further, to make people who dare to earn more and already pay more in tax pay even more.

This is complete madness. The less than 1% of Scottish adults who pay Additional Rate Tax pay over 18% of all income tax paid. Those who pay the Higher Rate pay 44% of all income tax paid.

These people are exactly the people we need more of in Scotland to drive our economy forward. They are skilled and highly mobile. Being “as progressive as we possibly can be on tax” will drive them away and reduce not increase the tax raised in Scotland. Well done, Mr Yousaf -  at least we now know your plan.