In Thurso

That's it, there's no other way to put it - it is what it is.

Even here though, with limited access to internet since Saturday morning, the already lack lustre effort from unionist parties, the total lack of enthusiasm for their Vow and the inevitable fall into the morass that is Westminster party politics. Why any one in Scotland thought this wouldn't happen is difficult to understand.

Gordon Brown was in parliament today... Hold on one moment while I say that again. Gordon Brown was in parliament today, this time though, instead of saving the union he's trying to save Labour from being irrelevant in England as well as Scotland. David Cameron must be laughing up his well tailored sleeve - Labour save the union but lose all those votes on English only issues at Westminster? With any luck Labour will become as big a laughing stock in the rest of the UK as they are in Scotland.

The bumbling arse also accused Cameron of 'betraying Scots'. You read that right, the man who was instrumental in, erm, betraying Scots (you'll recall The Vow) is accusing the same Tory into whose grasp he delivered us of, eh, betraying the Scots. Turns out the referendum aftermath is a looking glass thicker than any that came before. I'd like to say we're through it now, but something tells me there's more to come. Its a ridiculous state of affairs, Scottish Labour MP's are pretty much irrelevant anyway - at least as far as real Scottish interests are concerned. The only group of people who benefit from Scottish Labour MP's at Westminster are Scottish Labour MP's. 

All of that set against a back drop that is Jeremy Hunt promising to save us all from the Ebola outbreak, you've got to accept things are not looking good. Putting Jeremy Hunt between your kids and a killer virus is a bit like putting a sheet of damp bog roll between them and a pyroclastic flow. Its not that pyroclastic flows are powerful as such, its just that damp bog roll isn't a great barrier against anything - and neither is Jeremy Hunt.

Yet here we are, after a No vote.

There are still a great many Yes posters, stickers and billboards up here on the North coast, it certainly hasn't gone away. We've camped at Gairlochy on Saturday night and South Laggan on Sunday (in the Great Glen,) stayed in microcabins at the Loch Ness Holiday Park near Invermoriston on Monday (didn't see the monster) and as I've said, I'm now in Thurso (via John 0' Groats) pecking away on a netbook while eight teenagers play a card game called 'Shit-head'. Despite this rustic existence, news of today's debate filtered through, hearing William Hague (for example) opine about Scottish Devolution when we know he doesn't give a shit is - how should I put this - enervating?

One wonders if we'll finally be through the looking glass when Labour and to a lesser extent the Lib Dems, having saved the union but lost all their Scottish MP's votes on policies deigned to be 'English-Only' - a bit like being left with all the cards the Tories discarded - if after next year's Westminster elections, UKIP and the Conservatives spend the following parliament shouting SHIT-HEAD at the opposition benches?

It wouldn't surprise me.