MAKE no mistake about it, last week was tough for those of us who support independence. This week, however, it’s time to take a deep breath, allow legal procedures to take their course and turn back to politics.

With the UK standing precariously on the edge of the Brexit cliff, a no-deal departure is more than just a far-fetched worst-case scenario, but a strong probability. Britain’s bookies, who are not known for their charitable disposition, are now offering odds of around 1/2 on that happening – which for those don’t know how these things work means that if you bet £20 on a no-deal Brexit, you’ll win just a tenner if it happens.

Around 60% of racehorses that start at that price win (or so I am assured someone who understands gambling better than I do).

So it is now more than likely that the UK will be involved in a messy, disorderly exit from the European Union amid bitter recriminations. The consequences could well be a 21st-century version of the 1980s depression that wreaked carnage across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the north of England, and the social consequences of which we are still having to deal with today.

In Scotland, resistance to Brexit is not helped by some pro-Union Remainers, whose hostility to independence compels them to devote their energies sneering at the most effective anti-Brexit party in Westminster. “Call Out the Nats for Brexit Double Standards” screamed the headline above one opinion column in yesterday’s newspapers. It asked: “So why do we continue to put up with the myth that supporters of Scottish independence and supporters of leaving the EU are fundamentally different?”

Such simplistic, superficial rhetoric is recycled regularly in the pages of the Scottish media, usually accompanied by a sly comparison between Nigel Farage and Nicola Sturgeon. So, let’s sort out what is the myth and what is the reality. The reality is that the UK already has independence. Like every other member state of the EU, it can set its own levels of taxation. Across the EU, maximum income tax rates vary from 32% in Poland to 83% in Portugal. Top rates of corporation tax range from 9% in Hungary to 33% in France. VAT also varies. Scotland has no control over corporation tax or VAT and while it has some new powers over income tax – thanks to the 2014 independence referendum – 90% remain under the control of Westminster.

Each EU state, including the UK, sets its own state pension level. And all of its own social security benefits. And how much of its total budget it wishes to spend on public services. And, of course, the UK has full control over its own currency.

Westminster can set the level of the minimum wage and has full power over industrial relations, including trade union rights, pay bargaining and unfair dismissal protection. The UK can choose when and where to go to war and controls its own defence spending, its defence forces, its intelligence services, its emergency powers and its national security. It can decide whether to keep or scrap its enormous arsenal of nuclear weapons.

It controls the oil and gas fields that fall within its waters, electricity generation, air transportation and marine navigation. It decides its own constitutional arrangements, including whether to be a monarchy or a republic, the regulation and licensing of political parties and the level of powers that it devolves downwards. It controls broadcasting, driving licences, passports, copyright laws and a whole lot besides. The EU is not about sovereignty but about regulation. And the clear majority of the EU directives and regulations that apply to the UK have, according to polls, 70% to 80% support in Britain – including thumping majorities among Leavers.

In contrast to the Scottish Yes movement, the Brexit campaign was never about sovereignty. It was always about the one single power wielded by the European Union which is resented by the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, and the Sun, and cynically exploited for by a gang of right-wing political demagogues desperate for personal power.

That power is, of course, immigration – or more precisely the free movement of people across the continent. Sadly, however, in their blind hatred of the SNP and the broader Yes movement, some Remainers have swallowed the myth that Brexit is about independence and bringing power closer to the people. It is, in the real world, about locking people out.

Over these coming weeks and months, Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Government have crucial decisions to make.

The First Minister has particularly tough calls to make on the Brexit chaos and the timing of the next independence referendum, especially in the light of recent events. I don’t always agree with her, but I wish her all the best as she steers her way through the complex labyrinth of Scottish politics right now.