If you haven’t been to the new Perth Museum yet, do go. Very good. The exhibition about the Stone of Destiny is particularly lively but I remember thinking when I saw the stone, placed referentially in a great glass box, that I wasn’t feeling what I was supposed to feel. I approached it, I moved in close to the glass, I stared into its lumpy rockiness and felt … nothing.

I appreciate others may feel differently. I remember speaking to one of the gang of Scottish nationalists that took/liberated the stone from Westminster Abbey in the 50s, Ian Hamilton, and he said the stone mattered because icons matter. But he also said people had become overly obsessed with the thing. Everyone agreed, though, where it should be: the right place for the Stone of Destiny was Scotland.

The reasons are all mixed up and historical and emotional. There’s the symbolism obviously. King Edward I took the stone to Westminster Abbey to say to the Scots “your independence is over” and so the stone became a symbol for the removal, and restoration, of power and influence, which means it matters where it is. The other motivation was pretty basic: the English nicked it, so gies it back.

There’s similar stuff going on with the Elgin Marbles, which have been up for discussion again this week because of the meeting between Keir Starmer and the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. We don’t know exactly what was said........

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