REMEMBER how during the independence referendum campaign in 2014 Scotland was told repeatedly that the only way that we could assure the jobs in the shipyards on the Clyde was to vote No? And remember how we were told with equal frequency that the UK never ever, wouldn’t possibly dream of building military ships in a foreign country? Well about that ... It turns out that the Ministry of Defence is currently in talks with shipbuilders in a number of European countries, plus South Korea, about contracts for building three new auxiliary vessels for the Royal Navy. But these are only supply vessels, not your actual warships, and apparently that makes it all OK.

Since the British government is allowing foreign shipyards to bid for the contracts for these auxiliary ships, then an independent Scotland could have bid for them too. Which means that when we were told back in 2014 that shipyards in an independent Scotland couldn’t bid for Royal Navy contracts that wasn’t entirely true. The British government, telling lies to Scotland! Imagine that. That is as unexpected as the sun coming up in the morning, as finding a midgie in the Highlands, or as Reporting Scotland devoting a huge chunk of the small and precious broadcast time available for Scottish news to a story about a cute kitten that can’t play fitba and how it’s all the fault of the SNP. What really would be unexpected would be if they allowed Hardeep Singh Kohli or some other prominent independence campaigner on the show to comment on it, but there’s not much chance of that happening.

The predictable retort by apologists for British nationalism in Scotland is that Scotland was only ever told that warships wouldn’t be built abroad. However to the rest of us a naval vessel is a naval vessel, and it doesn’t really matter what its precise military role is. Contracts for the ships derive from defence procurement and therefore the British government is entitled to ensure the ships are built within the UK, giving the Clyde a better chance of securing the order. But the British government hasn’t done that. They might not have breached the letter of their promises to Scotland, but they’ve certainly breached their spirit.

This is all part of a very predictable pattern of behaviour from the British government when it comes to the promises and commitments that it has made to the people of Scotland, particularly those promises and commitments that were made in order to secure a No vote in the referendum of 2014. They all have get-out clauses as big as Ruth Davidson’s ego. There are planetary gas giants which are smaller than that, and to be fair that’s also a pretty good description of Ruth’s ego.

Take for example the promise made by the British government that the permanence of Holyrood would be enshrined in law, in provision which would also enact that no change could be made to the powers of Holyrood by a Westminster government without the express consent of the Scottish Parliament. The provision was duly written, and it was passed as part of the new Scotland Act. It was only later we discovered that said provision has no legal standing and can be ignored by Westminster whenever it sees fit. You might think that the whole point of writing something into law was that it was, you know, the law. But that doesn’t apply when it involves a promise made by Westminster to Scotland.

Westminster’s promises to Scotland are a bit like a mobster promising that if you give him a large amount of money then he won’t break your leg. So you give him a few grand in order that you can keep walking, but then he kneecaps you in both legs and smashes both your ankles. Technically he’s not broken your leg, but his promise doesn’t have a leg to stand on, and neither do you. Then he goes on a BBC Scotland news and current affairs programme that doesn’t feature Hardip Singh Kohli to tell you that the Vow has been delivered, so what are you complaining about? You’re an ungrateful separatist who needs to learn to respect the fact that the promise has been kept. Your leg hasn’t actually been broken. Just your kneecaps and your ankles.

Maybe I should retract that last paragraph. It’s a bit unfair to compare the British government to mobsters. The Mafia does actually have a moral code of sorts, which is a lot more than you can say about the British government’s promises to the people of Scotland.

But the British government has only made a hoist for its own petard. During the next independence referendum campaign, we will be able to point to all the promises and commitments made in 2014, and show how what was delivered fell very far short. Then whenever a new Vow or promise is made, all we’ll have to do is to say, “But you said that the last time, and it turned out to be a lie.” No wonder they’re so desperate to avoid a second independence referendum.