I’m loath to get into politics, but just in passing: with less than a year to go before Scotland votes on independence, one oft-repeated fallacy is really doing my head in: it’s the idea that voting for or against independence is voting for or against the SNP.

The referendum isn’t about party politics. It’s about the entire political system. An independent Scotland may well elect majority SNP governments, but it might equally elect a Labour government, or a coalition, or – and I admit, this one’s pretty unlikely – Tories.

An independent Scotland would arguably have a much more representative democracy than we do now, where we’re governed by a coalition that Scotland didn’t vote for. Devolution has softened that somewhat, but we’re still largely ruled from Westminster.

That’s what we’re being asked to vote on. We’re not being asked to decide whether we like Alex Salmond or David Cameron. We’re being asked how we want to elect their successors.

* Not my pun, I’m afraid. It was one of the placards at the weekend’s pro-independence rally.