‘I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” said the Queen.

THIS Alice in Wonderland quote, once fiction, is becoming a sad reality. As the UK descends further into chaos, we will all be asked to believe many impossible things, not just before breakfast, but at lunch and dinner too.

The UK is wide open to increasing turmoil because its institutions are so deeply flawed. The bodies that provide a bulwark of democracy in other countries have festered and ossified in the UK. They are no longer fit for purpose. The evidence is all around you.

The British civil service, once the envy of the world, sits by while minister after minister places huge contracts with friends and supporters. At one time the rules that forbade this debauchery were strictly enforced.

The BBC – once hailed across the world – is a mere shadow of its former self. It is now run unashamedly by self-declared Tories. Its management is cowed by the threat of being unable to make their mortgage payments if they speak up. Of course, this decline began many years ago in Scotland where the BBC now “serves” an inevitably dwindling and aging audience.

They say that a fish rots from the head down. And this is certainly true of British institutions. This is amply confirmed in the recent Oprah Winfrey interview with Harry and Megan. Under questioning, Harry agreed that he, and particularly his wife, had been very badly treated by the “institution”. He also said that he had approached its head, to no avail.

Asked why “the firm” had behaved the way it did, he replied “because they are terrified of the tabloids”. And the institution would go out of its way to ensure the tabloids were satisfied. Tabloid hacks, he declared, were regularly entertained at the Palace.

Just for a moment, forget this institution is the Palace. Let’s examine it from the point of view of a business. This seems fair. After all, it describes itself as “the firm”.

The firm has an executive chair, that is, its head has total power. This person can appoint to the firm whom they like, when they like and how they like. They can also consign anyone in the firm at any time to obscurity. The firm’s “customers” – the public – are a relatively docile bunch, many of whom are content to be fed happy stories, regardless of the actuality. Unsurprisingly, this is where the dependency on the tabloids comes in. Editors, however, will not be content to run these happy tales unless they get some raw meat from time to time. Remember Benjamin Franklin’s dictum: “news is what someone, somewhere, does not want to see in print. Anything else is advertising.” Or, to put it another way: “if it bleeds, it leads.”

Once in a while the Palace needs a bad news story. And sometimes someone in the “firm” needs to be the fall guy. It seems from the Oprah interview that everyone in the “firm” is very much aware of this exposure. And once you are out of the firm, you are out. No security, no help, it seems.

This would all be unfortunate in any family and no one wants to add to personal distress. But this firm is placed at the very apex of all British institutions. Its values count. It matters how it conducts its business. Indeed, all other British institutions swear fealty to it.

For instance, no politician in the UK can serve in any parliament without taking such an oath. Similar requirements are routine in many, many other institutions too.

Therefore, if “the firm” has problematic business principles it would be unrealistic to suggest those institutions that are bound to it are not tempted to ape its behaviour. Thus, we have ourselves a society riven with profound flaws and dubious conduct.

However, I hear royalists counter, other countries have “firms” too; and they seem to be able to make it work. True, but their “firms”, and all other institutions in these countries, are generally bound by a written constitution. Furthermore, the great majority of these constitutions vest sovereignty in the people. By contrast in the UK, sovereignty lies with the Crown-in-parliament.

Constitutionally, the British state has contrived to have the worst of all possible worlds. A deeply rooted resistance to change coupled with an even deeper-seated obsession with nostalgia for the past has rendered its institutions unfit to properly serve the public.

To prevent vital Scottish institutions going the way of their British counterparts it is a matter of urgency to bring them under the aegis of a Scottish constitution – with sovereignty of the people – that protects them while ensuring their good governance.

Next week’s guest on the TNT show is Sheena Wellington. Join us on Wednesday live at 7pm