THERE are many reasons for Scottish independence, not least that we could mine the country's pop talent for our own entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.
What better way to re-affirm good relations with our European friends following the snub of Brexit than taking part in the competition, established in the 1950s as the war-torn continent was seeking to rebuild itself?
Rather than the succession of UK embarassments, perhaps we could enlist the likes of Calvin Harris, Chvrches or Carla J Easton, one of the country's best young pop writers?
The TeenCanteen founder has already had similar thoughts, recording a video to Dreamers On The Run, the opening track of her forthcoming solo album Impossible Stuff, in the style of a Eurovision entry.
The video, filmed and directed by Ross Dickson, sees Easton cavort around central Glasgow before singing her gutsy sing-a-long in a dangerously flammable-looking frock.
With whiskered bard Aidan Moffat providing droll commentary, the audience too seem still stuck in those optimistic days when it was thought sharing songs with different countries was a better way to live than going to war with them.
Easton told The National: "I occassionally let my imagine run wild. So I imagined that at some point Scotland hosts the Eurovision Song Contest which means we would have entered it the year before and one which likely means we are independent from the UK.
"The host city is Glasgow and I'm representing Scotland. And then I imagined Aidan Moffat would probably be the voiceover for the televised show. So then I thought 'just make it and see what happens' and ended up with this video for my song Dreamers On The Run from my forthcoming album."
Next week, Easton plays as part of an unnamed supergroup for Since Yesterday: The Unsung Women Pioneers of Scottish Pop on August 24 at Leith Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival's Light On The Shore.
Appearing in addition to Sacred Paws, Bossy Love and The Van T's, the supergroup will playing songs by Ettes, Strawberry Switchblade, Lung Leg and more, and also features Stacey MacLeay (The Moth & The Mirror), Kate Lazda (Kid Canaveral), Vicki Cole (Randolph's Leap) and Lesley McLaren (Lola In Slacks). Tickets at: www.eif.co.uk/whats-on/2018/since-yesterday
Released on October 5 on Olive Grove Records, Impossible Stuff is launched at Glasgow's Broadcast the following day. Carla then plays Leith Depot (Oct 20) and Aberfeldy Festival (Nov 3).
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