THIS is a dispatch from the front line of the SNP Civil War, delivered to the HQ of The National, tied to the leg of a doo that was radicalised during an independence rally at George Square. There it was, pecking away aimlessly at a bit of haggis pakora, when all of a sudden it realised that it was a more useful member of Scottish society than your average Tory MP.

The doo spends its life clearing up garbage, whereas Tory MPs spend theirs creating it. The doo had discovered that it was welcome in Scotland even though it had originally flown in from England, following a coach trip returning from Blackpool in the hope of some discarded chips soaked in curry sauce.

Now it has carved out a useful niche for itself, working in communications for a Scottish independence movement that is tearing itself apart in a vicious SNP civil war which mostly seems to consist of people in anti-independence newspapers writing articles about how vicious the SNP civil war is.

You can witness it for yourself if only you look hard enough. This is why we need media professionals to tell us what’s going on. Signs of the civil war were everywhere at the independence rally in Dunfermline on Saturday, which the dug addressed while I interpreted into human for him. There was a kid of about 10 who gave his maw a really dirty look after she took some chips from him. There was a man in his late sixties who noticeably failed to guffaw when his pal told him a joke about how he was full of the cold, congested, a head full of cotton wool and finding it difficult to be coherent, with dreck pouring from every orifice, so now he knew what it felt like to be Ross Thomson. There was the young couple having a mild disagreement about whether to go to the pub afterwards, or to go for a bite to eat. There were some weans engrossed in digging trenches. Admittedly they were playing in a sandpit, but still. It was pure carnage out there.

Thankfully, the horrors of the SNP civil war have had about as much effect on Scotland’s prospects for independence as the last Star Trek movie – which, like the SNP civil war, is entirely fictional. Although it does have better special effects, and the independence movement has its very own tribbles in the shape of Scottish Tory MSPs.

An opinion poll published late on Sunday was greeted with howls of derision and outrage from British nationalists on social media who’d suddenly forgotten how polling works, because this poll showed that a majority of voters in Scotland would opt for independence if the UK presses ahead with Brexit.

All those previous polls which had shown a majority against independence had been received with smugness and glee from British nationalists. This one was different. Because The National was the first of the papers to report it, it was immediately denounced as a biased poll from Thatessempee. Then they discovered that the poll had actually been commissioned by Better for Britain, an organisation opposed to Scottish independence. Oops.

Even worse for opponents of independence, and for the overwhelmingly anti-independence Scottish press that revels in SNPbadness, the fieldwork for this survey was conducted while the newspapers were screaming at the top of their lungs about the allegations facing Alex Salmond.

Last week in this newspaper, I wrote that no amount of SNPbad stories would dent the campaign for independence, because the desire for Scottish independence is not motivated by the SNP. It is not driven by the personalities of individual politicians. By far the biggest and most important driver of Scottish independence is the failure of the British establishment, the failure of British political parties to listen to Scotland, and their failure to fulfil the needs of Scotland within the framework of the UK.

No matter how loudly that Scotland’s media, impeccably opposed as it is to independence, screams allegations against an SNP figure as though they were proven fact, it doesn’t alter the fact that Scotland is still being taken out of the EU against its will. It doesn’t alter the fact that Scotland is not being consulted in the process and has no voice in it. It doesn’t alter the fact that the promises and commitments made by Better Together lie broken and shattered, crushed by the Brexit bus.

On Monday, we received the news that SNP membership now stands at a record 125,000, making the party the second largest in the UK , larger in terms of membership than the Conservatives – and with a considerably younger average age. There are indeed parties in the UK which are mired in civil wars, but the SNP is not amongst them. Compared to the divisions within a Conservative party which is destroying itself over Brexit, and compared to a Labour party whose politicians hate one another far more than they hate the Tories, the SNP is a paragon of unity of purpose.

Meanwhile, Ruth Davidson tweets at Nicola Sturgeon telling her to end the uncertainty and cancel any plans for an independence referendum, which is rather like an arsonist telling a building manager to stop talking about fire escapes.

What the events of the last week tell us is that the UK can have Scotland, or it can have Brexit. It can’t have both. If the People’s Vote campaign really wants Scotland to cooperate with its work towards a second EU referendum, if they want Scottish independence supporters to get behind their efforts, then they are going to have to change their views on a Scottish vote. They’re going to have to explicitly come out in support of a second Scottish independence referendum should Brexit go ahead.

What the events of the last week tell us is that the independence movement is on the right track, that our efforts are paying off. It means we need to keep campaigning, to keep organising our meetings and rallies. It means we need to keep up our persuasion and maintain our resolve to keep our eye on the prize and not to allow ourselves to be distracted by the agenda of the anti-independence press. Even the doos in George Square know that a change is in the air. Independence is coming.