GEORGE Galloway continues to enliven this repetitious Holyrood election by trying to out-parody himself. His TV party-political broadcast last week saw him pontificate from behind an ornate desk in some baronial setting, complete with a framed picture of an imperialist Winston Churchill on the mantelpiece. Naturally, Mr Galloway kept on his trademark homburg hat. Watching, I was easily distracted from his exaggerated delivery – every word separated from the next by a weird pause – by the thought that he keeps on the hat in bed while making love. However, we should not completely dismiss the eccentric Mr Galloway. On a good day he can be an effective demagogue. His role in this election is to say what the main Unionist leaders are unwilling or afraid to say for themselves in public. Unless you count grumpy Adam Tomkins’s call for Scotland to be held in the Union by “something more robust” than mere democratic consent. Together, Mr Galloway and Professor Tomkins represent a darker side of a Unionism that knows Scotland is leaving but has no political answer what to do about it.