ARE THERE, perhaps, special courses put on at Eton College and Oxford University under the broad theme of "The Scots:
why they are uniquely unqualified to conduct their own affairs"?
We ask because two weeks ago it was Sir Nicholas Macpherson (Eton and Balliol College, Oxford), who as chief mandarin at the Treasury was offering a somewhat jaundiced view of Scotland's ability to live within its means, whereas the UK is by no means a National Debt basket case.
Then this week we had Prime Minister David Cameron (Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford) flying in to Aberdeen to explain why a country the same size as, er, Norway, could not possibly run its own oil sector.
And only yesterday we had Rupert Soames (Eton and Worcester College, Oxford), boss of Glasgow-based power equipment company Aggreko, addressing a Holyrood committee on why independence was the road to perdition.
It must be hard being Mr Soames as everyone feels it necessary to allude to his grandfather, Winston Churchill. He reciprocates by avoiding all talk of fighting on the beaches, although his default response to SNP members at Holyrood yesterday did seem to be a V-sign of sorts.
Scathing of currency union, he said it would not work without Scotland being "tied up tighter than a kipper", although he later mixed his maritime metaphors by describing Aggreko's position headquartered in Scotland as "happy as clams".
Also on the No panel was Robert Kilgour (Loretto and Stirling), who described himself as "just a simple businessman, not a politician". That is technically true, but only because the voters of South Lanarkshire saw fit to reject him as Tory candidate in 1997 when he stood on a platform of opposing the creation of the Scottish Parliament.
The big hitter on the other side was Jim McColl, who famously rose from apprentice to boardroom to become one of Scotland's wealthiest men (Stonelaw High School and Strathclyde).
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