Judging by the last thread many PBers have spent the last few hours watching the opening matches in this year’s Six Nations.

Given the proximity of the Scottish Parliament elections due for the first week of May I wonder whether Scotland’s first victory over England at Twickenham in 38 years is going to have a political impact.

A former colleague of mine at the LSE in the 1990s was working on a thesis that linked the sporting success of Scotland to the push for independence. His theory was that the better Scotland did, particularly against the old enemy, then the less pressure there was for independence and the SNP. I never did see what he wrote but it has always struck me there might be something in it.

This is all about identity and if a huge rugby victory helps boost that then what is the point of all that breaking from the UK might lead to.

It will be interesting to track the polling.