Leader comment: The perils of being unintentionally Scottish

Not since Trainspotting's Renton '“ famed for his epic 'it's s**** being Scottish' rant '“ can anyone have felt more disappointed to be Scottish than Jacqui Lambie.

Mark Renton, second from left, and friends take an ill-fated trip into the Scottish countryside in the film Trainspotting (Picture: The Kobal Collection)

As she researched her background for an autobiography, the Australian senator for Tasmania discovered her father had not been born in her native country as she had thought and had actually been a toddler when his family emigrated from Larkhall, South Lanarkshire.

This was a revelation that could end her political career. For, in what has been dubbed the “world’s most ridiculous constitutional crisis”, five Australian MPs, including the deputy prime minister, have been forced to step down because of a 1900 law forbidding dual citizens from holding office. Ms Lambie has since been frantically denying she has UK, as well as Australian, citizenship. However she may be coming round to the idea of being Scottish, judging by one of her latest tweets. It appears to show a picture of her in full-tartan dress, with a set of bagpipes and a blue-painted face. “William Wallace eat your heart out,” she said. Renton, no doubt, would not have been impressed.