Pray for calm from the storm

The relentless pace of the news agenda had left them all reeling

Iwas in London last week catching up with former friends and foes from my Westminster days.

As I stood sipping a bottle of sparkling water outside the Red Lion, one of Whitehall's political pubs, a succession of MPs and journalists wandered past.

A few paused to natter, grateful, it seemed, for the chance to press the pause button on another day which was thundering past them at 100mph.

They included current cabinet members and government staffers. There were politicos from across the parties.

There were been-there-done-that-got-the-T-shirt backbenchers and excited newcomers to the Commons. There were hacks and snappers and hangers-on.

What struck me was the unanimity they displayed. To a man and woman they all wanted the same thing. A wee bit of calm from the storm. One of them, a senior cabinet minister, had aged years in just a few months.

They all felt the same way. Tired. The relentless pace of the news agenda had left them all reeling.

The general election and its aftermath. Reshuffles. The Queen's Speech. Brexit talks. Rumours of political coups. The Tory/DUP deal – or not.

A vacancy at the helm of the Lib Dems.

The continued intrigue at the White House and the Tweetfest that is Trump.

And, of course, above all, the horror of Grenfell Tower and the terrorist attacks in London, Manchester and at Finsbury mosque.

Later that day, at an event organised by ICAS, the main speaker was James Ball, of Buzzfeed. We shared a platform to discuss his specialist subject, Fake News. But he too, a man who relishes a thumping good political story, joined the call for the brakes to be applied to the real news and a semblance of relative calm to return.

Indeed, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, told the BBC on Sunday that it was time for the UK Government to get on with the day job. A cry familiar to us in Scotland and one which is, as I type, being wrestled with by our First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. For her, the lesson of the general election is that having Indyref2 as the centrepiece of her policy table is out of tune with the majority of public opinion.

“Get on with the day job" has become a persistent cry from Scottish opposition and public alike. And clearly, to respond and show that she gets it, the first minister has to slide independence back down the table. From being the main course to being an optional side dish.

How will it be done? It will be a question of letting the timetable slip. No more talk of holding it next year. Or even the year after. Instead, an implied acceptance that it’s off. Until Brexit is done and dusted. In other words, as I've suggested here before, until after the next Holyrood election in 2021. It will be a choice for the people in the SNP manifesto. So it may well not happen at all.

In the meantime, I hope this summer is a watershed. When the pace of political life can slow. When calm can return to our lives. When both Scotland's two governments can get on with their day jobs and we can get on with ours.

And when even our friends in the media can enjoy a wee break.