To the north of Scotland, where in Aberdeen the SNP conference has begun. Activists are gathering, once again, to try and figure out how exactly Scotland might achieve independence after a decisive 2014 referendum, a Supreme Court slap down and, er, almost 20 years of substandard SNP rule. Best of luck, chaps!

The party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn bagged the opening speech this morning, kicking off the conference in his usual punchy style by taking pops at his opponents. First up was an ornithology jibe directed at another politician from the north-east. Celebrating new murals that had sprung up around Aberdeen, Flynn quipped: ‘One of my favourite installations is a giant seagull painted on the side of a building at the junction of Willowbank Road and Holburn Street – or, as we now

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