The other day I went to Kilmacolm to interview Winnie Ewing. What a star. Even at 77, she’s still one of the very the best assets we have. Sheer charisma, and as sharp as ever. And by the way, it’s time to drop this Madame Ecosse tag. I think we should call her The Mother of Scotland.

Anyway, I had the questions I wanted to ask but for the first hour or so I let her talk away, setting her own agenda. And unerringly she homed in the on the Labour Party. Her theme was – at long. Long last, they’re being found out. Astutely, she sees this as an enormous chance for Scotland - for too long it has been Labour, more than any other party, that has held us back.

Yet there’s a danger here too. As I do the rounds and go from town to town, I constantly come across people who speak to me on these lines:

"Ok, the Nats are doing well in the polls but that’s really just a function of the huge unpopularity of this failing government. Yeah, I was taken in by Blair in 1997. Terrible, isn’t it?"

People who talk like this seem to think that the British state just needs a wee kick, a little warning, and then it should be allowed to drift on regardless. They have not faced up to just how diseased the British state has become.

The other day a leading Unionist politician let the cat out the bag. He described a country that was, officially, the worst country for children, in the entire developed world. It was the fattest nation, with the most apathetic voters, the worst energy wasters, the highest number of porn addicts, the most violent citizens, the highest prevalence of cocaine use, the worst linguists, the biggest binge drinkers and the fewest organ donors.

Yup - that’s a neat enough snapshot of today’s Britain.

So the corrupt and incompetent British state needs much more than just a nudge, a little shock. That would not allow for root and branch improvements in the lives of most British citizens. Nor would it help our disgraced country to regain respect abroad..

For the British state, irrespective of whichever government might hold power - though it is admittedly difficult to imagine that we could ever have a worse government than the present one – has become rancid with failure.

This state of affairs requires much more than just a passing protest vote. It requires renewal, a grand civic starting again. What a wonderful opportunity for this we would have with a new Scottish state. Of course I’m not so naïve a to think that we’d solve all our problems overnight just by becoming independent. If your nation’s kids are treated worse than those aanywhere else in the developed world, if the very bonds of civilisation are breaking fast, then simple constitutional change – no matter how momentous - is in itself not going to fix anything.

But, and this is the key point, it does give you the chance to start anew, to regroup, to reform vigorously and to build a society that is a worthwhile one in which to bring up children, a decent country that has a responsible and respected foreign policy, and so on. The more you think about it the more obvious it gets.

At the same time I don't underestimate the hugeness of the task

And nor do I underestimate the wiles of the naysaysers and the fearties, and those who are so conservative that they cannot even envisage the potential for benign change. But do these unimaginative apologists for the British state ever open their eyes and have a good hard look at the state we're in?

Of course I don’t underestimate the enormous and even heroic achievements of the British state, particularly in the years from 1940 to 1945. But that’s the past. The noble freedom-loving legacy has been frittered away.

The other point is that if Scotland were to become independent, England would too. So the English people would also have a wonderful opportunity for renewal on a grand scale.

This is a time for big thinking, for vision and hope.

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