Three weeks into the aftermath of the SNP’s thumping victory this month, a chorus of shrill voices are being raised as to what its supposedly-impossible absolute majority might portend. But, rather than being from unionists here in Scotland who see barbarians at the gates and are pondering the right moment to load up the kids and head for Carter Bar, most wails are coming from voices across the London media not properly briefed on their subject as they interview some of our top politicians (who are). A classic example was Monday’s mismatch on Daily Politics between Wur Eck and Anita Anand who seems to have showed up for a tennis match carrying golf clubs

Similarly, Jeremy Paxman’s normally powerful forensic questioning diffuses into something closer to willfully ignorant disdain when dealing with an unflappably poised Nicola on Newsnight on May 11th:

In contrast, on The Politics Show, Lorraine Davidson of the Times and Iain Martin of the Daily Mail—neither of them friends of the SNP—seem able to explain what’s going on quite eloquently in a matter of minutes:

If there is indeed such a thrawn mindset among leading political media figures in London, adding to English Jingoistic rants from the likes David Starkey or Kelvin MacKenzie, then Anglo-Scots relations are likely to enter some very choppy waters. The SNP, while clearly having the bit between its teeth, has no interest in anything but calm and reasonable dialogue with our southern neighbours. Given the huge leap recently made in Anglo-Irish relations this month after decades of dithering, such dialogue is clearly possible.

But will an apparently myopic and even willfully ignorant London media allow it to happen?