Congratulations to Lorna Rose Treen, winner of this year’s funniest joke of the fringe with her gag: "I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah."

A special thank you should go to the TV channel Dave for organising the awards. Every year, like many Glaswegians, I come close to surrendering my scepticism about the Fringe. Go on, says the angel on my shoulder, give it a try, book that ticket, tens of thousands of people cannot be wrong. Then along comes the Dave award to confirm my worst fears. Disaster averted for another year. Thanks, Dave.

No disrespect to the winner, but the summer’s best gag came too late to be included in the top ten. The performer was a relatively new face from the north. Name of Kate Forbes? Had a prominent role in that awful reality show set during an SNP leadership contest? The very same.

Interviewed for The Political Party with Matt Forde podcast, Ms Forbes jokingly agreed that the Second Coming would arrive before a second independence referendum. It was a good gag: a little bit political, with a hint of Life of Brian naughtiness, and headline-friendly to boot. Bravo.

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It was certainly a better effort than some of her colleagues have put in this year. And not a swear word in sight. All in, another highly promising turn from a performer who thrives on keeping her audience guessing.

It is easy to be confused by the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch. One never knows quite which Kate Forbes is going to turn up to an event.

She began the SNP leadership contest as KO Kate, putting fellow contender Humza Yousaf on the canvas with a series of blows to his ministerial reputation.

That led to a backlash, as did her firm views on equal marriage, having children outside wedlock and other social issues. In response she came back as “I’m okay, you’re okay Kate”. This Kate was all for respectfully disagreeing with others and everyone remaining friends despite their differences.

On the day of the result she looked like the happiest, most relieved woman in the world. Sure, she was second to the summit behind Mr Yousaf, but K2 Kate had done better than anyone expected.

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Back down to earth, she swept baby and husband into her arms and headed for home, far from the capital and its grubby politics. Later, when “Stuff Happened”, she looked even more fortunate to have lost. She acknowledged as much in another interview, saying she had not just dodged a bullet “but perhaps something more explosive than that”. No wonder she was so adamant about not running again.

Yet here she is, telling the Irish Times “never say never” when asked if she would stand for leader. Another interviewer, this one from the West Highland Free Press, was told the MSP was “incredibly reluctant” to chuck her chapeau in the ring. But at the same time: “The only reason I would not say never is: who can control the way circumstances unfold?” Say hello to Kismet Kate (or is it Mystic Meg?), fate and destiny cast into the wind.

She was not done yet. “The membership made their decision and I am not sore about it. I respect democracy.” Finally, a clear position. But not so fast. She went on: “The only thing that exercises me is that I think it is high time we had a Highlander at the helm.”

Will she, won’t she? What is going on here? The to and fro is beginning to reach levels that would make the average Conservative hopeful blush.

Michael Heseltine could famously foresee no circumstances under which a challenge [to Margaret Thatcher] would take place.

Ms Forbes appears to be carving out her own Heseltonian formula.

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But why would she want to? For a start, there is no vacancy. Mr Yousaf has not come through the past few months of hell on wheels only to give up now. No result in Rutherglen could be so disastrous the membership will call for him to quit. Even if it is the stuff of the party’s worst nightmares, there are others who can be blamed.

So once more with feeling, where is Ms Forbes on the leadership question? Perhaps there has been a huge misunderstanding. “I see that political reporting doesn’t quite capture comedy,” she tweeted after her last Edinburgh gig.

Who knows? A strange atmosphere has settled over Scottish politics this summer. Maybe it’s the long holiday season, with one week drifting into another and not a lot happening. The weather doesn’t know what to do with itself either. There’s an app on my screen that flips from sunny and warm to cool and raining, bearing little relation to what I can see through the window.

There have been distractions, most of them happening at the Fringe, but even these have become tiresome. Now the shows are over or on their last few days. The only tickets bought now are the ones for home.

We all know what can bring an end to the uncertainty of these past months, but we don’t know when it will happen. So we wait.

It is not a healthy state for a nation to be in, particularly when there is so much to be getting on with. Scotland’s politicians will soon be following pupils and getting back to the day job. September 4 is red-ringed in the calendar. It is definitely time.

Ms Forbes will be among those sharpening their pencils and ambition, ready for another session, one that has the potential to be like no other.

She has a lot to contribute to her party and the country. Yet for all the kite-flying and joke-cracking she has been doing of late, she is still at odds with many on certain fundamentals. Perhaps this is what the recent interviews have been about, a bid to explain herself better or reach an accommodation with others. The latter won’t be easy. In some cases it will be impossible.

Despite taking part in a lengthy and exhausting leadership contest, and before that being a government minister, Ms Forbes remains to many an unknown quantity. If she is a potential leader and First Minister that won’t do.

Before she can do anything she has to decide what she wants and make it clear to others. Summer over, jokes over, it is over to you, Ms Forbes.