WHEN in a hole the wise thing to do is to stop digging. The foolish thing is to invite anyone with a spade to join you. The Tories are in panic mode about independence. I suspect the topic rarely lodges for long in the goldfish-like attention span of the Prime Minister – but for Michael Gove, it’s personal.

He couldn’t get out of Scotland and into Westminster fast enough but, just like Gordon Brown, his ego needs a coterie of followers or disciples back home looking to him as the biggest fish and willing to do his bidding.

We saw how he functions during the defenestration of Jackson Carlaw. Gove’s fingerprints were all over it, driven by the undoubted fact that his party in Scotland is in as much of a mess as the Union it exists to promote.

Of course the sensible thing to do in such circumstances would be to look for the cause of the problem. The long-term decline of “Britishness” underpins the growth of support for independence, but it has also been accelerated in recent years by the failure of the UK Government to respect the country and those who live here.

That failure has been exacerbated by Brexit and by the intransigence and deviousness of the Johnson government whose policy towards Scotland is designed and executed – you got it – by Gove himself.

Yet instead of self-reflection and policy change, he prefers to welcome George Galloway, complete with spade.

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I remember well my last sight of Galloway at a Scottish election. On the night of the 2011 count a number of us were in the BBC Scotland Green Room waiting to be interviewed but he soon disappeared when it became clear that his attempt to enter Holyrood had been a disaster, attracting only 3.3% of the Glasgow list vote.

Despite that experience he has come back for more but apparently even his help is not enough to dig the anti-independence hole. Gove also needs, it is reported, Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale’s muscle. This is the Jack, before his ennoblement, who wanted Scotland to be the “best wee country in the world” but doesn’t seem to want Scottish citizens to have the right – taken for granted in all normal wee countries – to choose their own future.

FORTUNATELY no matter how much digging these unlikely three amigos undertake, their efforts to derail democracy aren’t going to work.

“Cheats never beat” as the old nanny in Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On observed. What the Tories really need to do is to give up on the sleight of hand, ignore the Govian sycophants in their Scottish branch and listen to what the real Scotland is saying.

Firstly they should unequivocally recognise the mandate for a second referendum which is held by the current Scottish Government and publicly agree that this gives the right to that government to hold a referendum.

Secondly they should acknowledge the reality that such a referendum will be run to the gold standard already enshrined in Scottish legislation, according to the franchise which already applies in Scotland. No jiggery-pokery from Westminster.

Thirdly they should withdraw their proposals for the so-called internal market legislation ... not only because the Scottish Parliament rejected them by 92 votes to 31 this week but also because the vast majority of Scottish respondents to the deliberately rushed consultation have expressed strong reservations about the plans.

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The alternative of agreeing to complete the work on frameworks gives them a dignified way of retreating and they should take it.

Fourthly they should explicitly recognise the justifiable concerns of Scotland regarding Brexit and agree to negotiate arrangements for and with Scotland which mitigate the damage of leaving the EU, pending the referendum on independence which, if successful, would see Scotland apply to rejoin Europe.

And finally they should work on all this with the legitimate elected representatives of Scotland who are, in by far the greatest part, those from the SNP.

Consorting with Galloway, McConnell and others from the past might suit Gove’s addiction to the dark arts but it disgraces him as a democrat.

Do I think he or his party will listen to all this?

Of course not. But he should remember that Scotland often has a surprise in store for those who grow too big for their boots.

We pride ourselves, rightly or not, that we are all Jock Tamson’s bairns. As such we judge harshly those who prefer not honest dealing in the light of day but underground plots, in doubtful company, with shovels.