NEWSFLASH. Brexit has happened. There is no going back.

The current frenetic activity taking place in Brussels and London is only about the terms of our future relationship with the EU. We left the EU on January 31 and entered a transition period where we remain in the single market and customs union without voting rights until midnight on December 31. The time for seeking an extension to the transition period is long past. The only thing left to be decided is whether we leave the transition period with or without a deal governing the future relationship.

If there is a deal MPs will be asked to choose between that deal and the prospect of leaving with No Deal. That vote will neither be an endorsement of nor an opportunity to stop Brexit. Brexit is history. Scotland now needs to decide what to do about that.

As regards Northern Ireland a solution appears to have been found but the details are being kept under wraps. That said, the headline news is one that can be used to Scotland’s advantage.

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According to Michael Gove businesses in Northern Ireland will “enjoy the best of both worlds: access to the single market and at the same time unfettered access to the rest of the UK market”.

Well, who knew? Presumably this means there is no reason that an independent Scotland in the EU could not also have the best of both worlds – access to both the single market and the rest of the UK market. No hard border. No infrastructure on the border. Only the “light touch, minimal checks” of which Michael Gove is so proud. Well, we shall see. But the Tories must never again be allowed to get away with claiming Scottish independence means a hard border with England is inevitable.

The agreement reached regarding the border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK means that the international law-breaking clauses can be removed from the Internal Market Bill. But this does not mean that damage has not been done.

It is now known across Europe and internationally that this British Government is prepared to break its word on an international treaty in order to get their own way. Of course, we knew that this government was prepared to break its word in Scotland already – and, for that matter, so did the Irish – but now everyone knows it across Europe and the world, including the new American administration.

Regaining the trust of the EU member states and re-establishing the UK’s reputation will take a long time. Even sensible Tories realise this, hence the fury of many Tory grandees in the Lords – even some who were pro-Brexit.

But to adapt an old Irish nationalist phrase, England’s difficulty here could be Scotland’s opportunity. We already know that there is much greater international sympathy towards Scotland’s desire for independence than there was in 2014 as a result of the British Government’s Brexit antics. Now is the time for us to build on the work already done by the Scottish Government and SNP MPs with a major diplomatic offensive to secure some significant diplomatic gains from all that goodwill.

The opportunity should also be taken to reiterate that Scotland is not a region of the UK seeking to secede but an ancient nation which entered into a union with England and in seeking to leave that union merely seeks to regain its statehood. The narrative needs to change and now is the perfect time when we have receptive ears.

I meet regularly with diplomatic missions in London and have seen how things have changed. This was reinforced earlier this week when Dr Philippa Whitford gave evidence to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on EU Affairs and impressed her audience of Irish parliamentarians with an eloquent exposition of Scotland’s position on Brexit and the real implications for our industries, including fishing.

What of the UK Parliament? To their credit members of the House of Lords, as well as amending the Internal Market Bill to take out the law-breaking parts, also amended it to remove or ameliorate the power grab on devolution. The deadlock with the Commons over these amendments continues but ultimately what the UK Government wants will prevail.

Lord Hope, former lord president of the Court of Session and depute president of the UK Supreme Court and a Unionist, said that initially when he heard SNP politicians talking about a power grab he thought it was hyperbole but after reading the bill he agreed.

Like the SNP, the majority of peers in the House of Lords saw through the Tory lie that Holyrood is getting new powers. They identified that Westminster is getting sole control over state aid and in order to enforce the Internal Market, UK ministers are getting an explicit power to cut across decision-making by the Scottish Parliament in a whole range of devolved areas from education to building regulations.

What we are seeing here is a rebalancing of the constitutional settlement in so far as devolution is concerned. The delineation of Donald Dewar’s scheme for devolution with its clarity – where everything which isn’t reserved to Westminster is devolved to Holyrood – is to go.

SO, what are Labour doing to preserve Donald Dewar’s legacy? It is to their eternal shame that, earlier this week, whilst Gordon Brown was howling at the moon about federalism they sat on their hands and abstained on the Lords amendments to prevent the hollowing out of the devolution settlement by enabling Westminster to spend in devolved areas, bypassing the Scottish Parliament which is elected by the people of Scotland to control these things. What a way for the handmaidens of the Vow to behave. No wonder they are finished in Scotland.

The changes to the devolved settlement being made under cover of Brexit fly in the face of the promise of greater powers for the Scottish Parliament which helped secure a No vote in the independence referendum of 2014 and on which Michael Gove and others doubled down during the Brexit referendum campaign.

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It is a disgrace that Brexit, something Scotland did not vote for is being used to undermine devolution, something Scots did vote for and in huge numbers.

What does it matter to Westminster that on October 7 all parties in the Scottish Parliament (apart from the Scottish Conservatives, obviously) voted to reject this bill. We knew already that the Sewel Convention, which is supposed to prevent Westminster legislating in devolved areas without the permission of the Scottish Parliament, is not worth the paper it was written on.

The Brexit process has told Scottish voters a lot about the reality of devolution. It has confirmed, if it were ever in doubt, that power devolved is power retained. And that the United Kingdom is not the union of equals that we were told about during the 2014 independence referendum but a unitary state where devolved power is taken back to Westminster by executive fiat when convenient.

Scotland does not lead the UK but rather must follow where England wishes to go, whether we like it or not.

The good news is that 15 opinion polls in a row show that voters in Scotland now realise what has happened and they don’t like it. The reality is that what happens at Westminster is increasingly irrelevant to the debate in Scotland. So, before long it will be Scotland’s turn to take back control. When and how Scotland does so should not be at the say-so of Westminster but at the say-so of the sovereign people of Scotland.