I swear by what?

The question of the oath that MSPs had to take the other day has got me slightly agitated.

Usually I ignore the royal family. They are an irrelevance in the 21st century: a bastion of inherited power and wealth in a country that claims to be a democracy. That won't change any time soon, as long as there are sycophants in all walks of life lining up to get their gongs and hang their 'by appointment' shields over their shop doors, not to mention the British Establishment viewing the royals as a reminder that Britannia is still great.

I saw something in the media not long ago about getting the population out to 'clean for the queen' and I thought: Aye, right. Let her pay the wages of some street sweepers and then we'll be in business. There have been parades of royals too, mostly sporting (unearned) medals and I have sometimes wondered when a member of that family last joined the army, got sent to Northern Ireland or Iraq and came back missing limbs or in a coffin.

But since I value my nice normal blood pressure, when the royals come on the telly, I mute the sound or change channels.

But the oath at Holyrood is too much even for me. This is a parliament that owes nothing to the royal family or to the British Establishment or Westminster, so why would any elected member be required to swear allegiance to 'the queen, her heirs and successors.' I'm certainly for putting as much clear water between Holyrood and Westminster as we can. A new oath is needed and it needs to identify the allegiance of MSPs as being to us, the people who elected them.

I see discussion on Facebook and Twitter about Scotland having its own elected head of state and awarding its own honours and I regard these matters as purely a distraction from the important work that needs to be done. Once we've reduced inequality and the attainment gap in education, eradicated poverty, improved our economy - and many other issues - then and only then can we start dealing with the other stuff.

Meanwhile, I'll keep my hand on the remote control for the telly