In the past four weeks there have been two big, well organised, demonstrations against SNP/Green policy and legislation outside the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh. One was reported in mainstream media, the other wasn’t. This is an attempt to understand why.

The first of them, organised by For Women Scotland against the GRR Bill, had a decisive impact on getting the issue into livingooms, not just in Scotland but across the UK and onto the Prime Minister’s ‘to do’ list. It succeeded where ferries, the Salmond trial, the missing £600k and the padlocked indyref2 failed – accelerating Nicola Sturgeon’s rumoured trajectory towards a UN sinecure.

The  other, the Glasgow Cabbie demo last week, has brought the grass root flames in the anti-Sturgeon undergrowth licking at the desks of pro-UK Scottish politicians and the studios of STV and BBC Scotland. It also created  issues, questions – and opportunities – for other campaign groups in this space, including Scotland Matters, the organisation I co-founded, although I’m writing this article on a personal basis.

Want to see why Scotland is better as part of the UK?