GOOD thing jumpy George Kerevan, the SNP candidate in East Lothian taking out newspaper ads to deny the election's about independence, isn’t on the stump much with Nicola Sturgeon. As she left an event the other day, the First Minister obliged a punter by signing a bottle of whisky. Springbank's “Spirit of Freedom” blend is naturally made from 45 different varieties.

THEY’RE not shy at the Edinburgh Yes Hub either. In a sign of things to come, it’s holding a fundraiser for independence on June 9, a whole day after the election. In an apparent tribute to the SNP’s sketchy record on education, the entertainment features musical collective Gallo Rojo, who promise songs from the “Spannish revolution”.

SNP canvassers are being taught always to gather accurate, if sometimes unwelcome, information. In the past, some downplayed bad doorstep reactions by logging loads of “don’t knows”. As one veteran tells Unspun, “If you talk to someone, then ask how they’ll vote and they say, ‘I don’t know’, that goes down as a light f*** off.”

MARGARET Ferrier, the SNP hopeful in Rutherglen & Hamilton West, brags on her leaflets she’s the “hardest-working Scot at Westminster” and the “top-talking” MP. So take that, you other lazy Nats. At a hustings this week, she also promised to visible. Alas, her mumbling meant the stunned audience heard her vow to be “invisible”. Top talking!