I must have blinked and missed it.

This was the week John Swinney was supposed to set out his ‘vision’ for independence. The irony is: there’s no vision to be seen.

If this is ‘vision’, then it’s been blindfolded, had a bag put over its head, bundled into the boot of a car and taken away to be encased in concrete and buried deep underground.

On Sunday, we were told that this was the week in which the First Minister would urge Scots to reject another 25 years of Westminster rule and embrace an independent future as part of his ‘vision’ for 2050.

I came over all giddy with excitement. Most of us can’t decide what we’re having for dinner, but here was Swinney promising a 25-year roadmap to “hope”.

Swinney then made two speeches, one on Monday, the other on Tuesday. In his Monday speech on “national renewal”, he mentioned ‘independence’ precisely zero times.

In his Tuesday address, billed as a “speech on independence” and entitled “Putting Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands”, he mentioned ‘independence’ twice. The speech was 2175 words long.

There was no talk of what independence would look like, no offer of a path towards another referendum. Just lukewarm platitudes. In other words, the vision was distinctly blind.

The SNP has got itself in an awful fankle over independence. Under Nicola Sturgeon, promises that ‘indy is coming’ became an almost weekly occurrence. It was laughable and transparent. It made fools out of Yes voters.

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