The SNP sitting in the Commons.

Since they had their spectacular success in the recent general election, the SNP have supplied two very potent images.

One was when they all turned up for the Queen’s speech wearing matching floral buttonholes and the other was the debate where theygreatly outnumbered all the other parties.

That second one was strange because the chamber is almost empty and yet they are all squeezed together in the section they have settled in, despite there being plenty of room for them to spread out if they wanted to.

Both of these images, especially the second one, just made me imagine that all the SNP MPs actually live together in one giant house, and do everything en masse. Surely it is only a matter of time before somebody does a The Thick Of It-style sitcom anout the SNP and if they do I think it should have the surreal flavour of the old Vic & Bob sketches about Slade, where they all shared one house.

I have this mental image of all 56 of them going to the supermarket together to stock up the kitchen, having a big yellow double-decker to ferry them to and from Parliament, and either phoning Dominos to order 56 pizzas (with extra toppings for Salmond’s) or trying to book a table for 56 at the local Bella Pasta.

If somebody at Channel 4 does not commission such a programme then there is something very wrong with the world.