REFERENDUMS are not a very satisfactory way of deciding anything.
One problem is that the question people answer is not necessarily the one posed on the ballot paper.
Given the chance, some voters prefer to vent their feelings based on the issue occupying their minds at the moment in question.
My personal score in recent referendums is a one-all draw. I voted to stay in the United Kingdom and also in the European Union.
I accept the result of the one that went against me and sincerely wish that those for whom the earlier result contained a similar disappointment would respond in the same way.
I fail to understand the argument that because a majority in Scotland voted to stay in the EU, this is justification for another referendum on the quite different subject of whether Scotland should remain in the UK.
The presumption that those who voted Remain can be counted as a bloc in support of “IndyRef2” is plain daft.
In both instances, a majority voted for Scotland to remain part of something bigger. So where is the logic in asking us again if we want to be part of something smaller?
The North-east represents an essential reminder that Scotland is far from being a monolith in any respect.
The city of Aberdeen recorded the national average vote of almost 40 per cent in favour of leaving.
This rose to just above and just below 45 per cent in Aberdeenshire and Angus respectively.
In Moray, the gap was just 22 votes.
It is a little strange to pretend that substantial anti-EU minority does not exist while sanctifying the right of the pro-independence minority in the 2014 referendum to have a second bite at the cherry.
Furthermore, diversity of opinion should not be measured only in numbers.
The North-east fishing industry has long been a bastion of Scottish nationalist support which appears to have voted overwhelmingly in favour of leaving the EU.
Because it is in a Scotland-wide minority, should its voice carry no weight?
Is it really plausible that an industry which felt so motivated about leaving the EU for its own distinctive reasons now wants a referendum based on the specific premise that Scotland must, at all costs, get back into the EU? I doubt it.
Just as there are pro-Union people who wanted to stay in the EU, so there are Nationalist voters who are very happy to leave it.
There is no genuine read across between the two issues.
As Sir Ian Wood – himself a disappointed Remain voter - has pointed out, the uncertainty of a further referendum could do serious damage to the Scottish economy at a time when everyone – particularly in the North-east – should be concentrating on its recovery.
Talk of further referendums should be put on the backburner at least until we see what the post-Brexit settlement looks like – and preferably for a great deal longer.