THE notorious Valentine’s Day massacre took place in 1929 as bands of thugs in Chicago battled it out for supremacy. It resulted in the murder of seven members of Chicago’s North Side Gang.

The men gathered at a garage on the morning of February 14, where they were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants dressed as police officers. The incident resulted from the struggle to control organised crime in the city during Prohibition and a fight between the Irish North Siders, headed by George “Bugs” Moran, and their Italian South Side Gang rivals, led by Al Capone.

The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan’s Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of a role, as are members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for the killing of a police officer’s son.

Here in the UK, we have our own bunch of gangsters running the place. They too, operate in collusion with friends and the authorities to enrich each other by fair means or foul – in fact, mostly foul. Almost every day there seems to be a new outrage where public funds are channelled to associates.

Resistance to their foulness is treated as an assault on their prerogatives and dealt with summarily. Like much of the work of Chicago gangsters, these efforts are often ill-designed and self-defeating. And summary justice often backfires. I make no excuses for reporting on their latest fevered imaginings.

UPIC is back in the news – for all the wrong reasons. Regular readers of this column will recall that UPIC is the Union Policy Implementation Committee, headed by Michael Gove; and its declared aim is to protect the Union.

UPIC has issued an appeal to waste even more money by adding to its team. These new appointments require no knowledge of Scotland. You can judge the quality of their deliberations by two recent wheezes. One idea, apparently in all seriousness, is to re-locate Prince Edward to Edinburgh. (Do stop sniggering at the back.).

Another is to require vehicle licence plates to carry the union flag. You can tell from these flaky notions how well they understand the average Scot.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson's team of Union advisers to 'triple in size to 30-50 staff'

We also learn that the previous head of the so-called Union Unit has been defenestrated. Luke Graham, who took up the post after being rejected by the good voters of Ochil and South Perthshire, has been fired.

Graham’s departure was confirmed just two days after Boris Johnson’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, described him as a “very valued member of staff”. He has been replaced by Oliver Lewis, a former head of research at Vote Leave.

The BBC says, “The appointment of a key figure from the Brexit campaign to replace Mr Graham will raise eyebrows given Scottish voters backed remaining in the EU by a wide margin.

“Mr Lewis, who joined the UK government as an adviser on Brexit policy, has no direct experience of Scottish politics. He was a senior member of the UK’s team during the Brexit negotiations with the EU.”

Many believe that the Leave campaign was characterised by a certain detachment from contemporary moral standards in politics. At every turn, it seems, this government recognises and rewards dubious methods and outcomes.

Cynics may say most politicians are crooks. But morality matters. It always has. Particularly in a state such as the UK with its largely unwritten constitution. In his excellent new book, Westminster and the World , published by Bristol University Press, Elliot Bulmer quotes Victorian legal reformer James Stephen in 1873:

“The character of our public men is the sheet anchor on which our institutions depend. So long as political life is the chosen occupation of wise and honourable men, who are above jobs and petty personal views, the defects of parliamentary sovereignty, however serious, may be endured even when they cannot be remedied or alienated. If, however, the personal character of English politicians should ever be seriously lowered, it is difficult not to feel that the present constitution would give bad and unscrupulous men a power even hardly equalled in any other part of the world.”

In short, the UK constitution has been in a poor condition for many, many years. Its flaws have been largely hidden from view because “good chaps” chose not to exploit its failings. These days have gone, and we are now facing the stark truth that it is not fit for purpose.

In an independent Scotland, let’s do our outmost to ensure sound ethical standards are enshrined in a formal constitution, beyond the reach of day-to-day politicking.

Next week’s guest on the TNT show is Professor Chris Whately. Join us on IndyLive at 7pm on Wednesday