Great Britain

Just after the UK voted to leave the EU in June, but just before the Tory leadership race got under way, I visited Writers Connect where we performed a politically-themed warm-up exercise. The title was 'Great Britain.' I was hoping Boris would make it, but hey ho. Who was I kidding?

There is no irony in this name, not even in the great upheaval of summer 2016. Britain is still great. It just isn't going to have quite as big a bat to swing, not for much longer at least.

We are about a month away from the Olympics, an international issue that for once doesn't concern the EU. It's an opportunity for our nation, as it stands, still to shine. This could, in fact, be the last time our Scottish Athletes compete with us, within our team, on an international stage. The Scottish National Party have said Scotland will leave the EU in the event of a Brexit. Well, that's happening now.

Will we need a passport to get into Scotland? Will they put extra tax on Scotch whisky? Will it lead to smuggling, and Scotch speakeasies?

Scotland is also known, if you read the news (and a lot of Irvine Welsh novels) for having a problem with heroin. Will new borders lead to more struggles to get this particular drug to users? Will this, plus alcohol smuggling, lead to more violence?

Or will everything stay more or less as it is, just with a self-aware dork with a messy haircut as a Prime Minister instead of an alleged pigfucker?