The SNP should be basking in its recent formidable polling success. Not only does support for independence appear to be on the rise – with 56 per cent in favour, according to the latest Ipsos Mori poll – but there is evidence too that the SNP could win an outright majority in the next Scottish parliament elections. So why does the party appear to be falling apart? Three front bench resignations in as many days doesn’t look like a party at peace with itself.

The problem is partly generational and partly political – not that the two things can easily be disentangled. Independence is a young person’s game. 70 per cent of under 34-year-olds in Scotland now support the Yes campaign. The rather patrician former investment banker Ian Blackford did not cut the right youthful dash. Indeed, he had allegedly committed the cardinal sin of being friendly with Tory MPs.

Younger nationalists are eager for action. They despair at Nicola Sturgeon’s gradualism even as they respect her qualities as a leader. The SNP’s activist base is intensely frustrated at the failure to secure a second referendum, which was to be provisionally scheduled for next October. Now, a majority of Scots have told Ipsos Mori that they now want one within the year.

Want to see Scotland under the SNP?