FOLLOWING Nicola Sturgeon’s pre-emptive strike last week, promising a repeat referendum on independence, some commentators claimed to detect an upsurge of ugliness and anger in Scottish politics. There have been claims that society is descending into a cauldron of identity politics and nationalist fervour. I don’t know where they’re seeing all this ferment, but it certainly wasn’t in the referendum debate in the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

The Great Debate on Section 30 was a low-key, even halting affair, generating less passion than many debates about domestic issues. MSPs seemed to be going through the motions, rehearsing arguments they’ve made many times before. Then, suddenly, events in Westminster electrified the chamber – but not in the right way.

Holyrood initially sought to carry on regardless. But as news of shootings, stabbings and “catastrophic injuries” outside Westminster started percolating through the chamber, MSPs realised that it would be disrespectful to continue talking while people were dying. Moreover, MPs in Westminster were locked in the Commons chamber and unable to leave. A security cordon descended over Holyrood as British democracy braced itself for what looked like a serious terrorist assault. This was the real thing. This was what real ugliness looks like.

Everyone’s thoughts were naturally with the victims, the police and the emergency services who conducted themselves yesterday with courageous professionalism for which they are renowned. But this terrorist incident, if such it is, has been a long time coming. Britain has long been a target for terrorist groups, mostly but not exclusively Islamist, and it was inevitable that, at some time, one of them would get through. There are just too many enemies of democracy out there willing to die in their attempts to destroy civilised politics.

As Westminster turned into an armed camp, surrounded by jumpy police carrying automatic weapons, it was a salutary reminder to everyone, in and out of politics, just how fragile our freedoms are and how important it is to contain debate in peaceful constitutional channels. Yesterday’s scenes brought back memories of even more violent attacks by the Provisional IRA in the 1970s and 80s. The Westminster Hall bombing in 1974; the murder of the Northern Ireland Secretary, Airey Neave, in 1979; the mortar bombing of Number Ten in 1990.

Some of those atrocities, and many many more in London, during the mainland bombing campaign were almost certainly condoned or authorised by the late Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein leader who died this week. He was a terrorist who became a peace-maker – or so the story goes. The perpetrators of yesterday’s attack may not be so willing to turn their backs on the ways of violence.

But these deaths should only make us more determined that democratic life carries on. The terrorists don’t fear death; only failure. And the best way to ensure they fail in their attempts to destabilise our democracy is to keep calm and avoid the temptation to suffocate it under a blanket of excessive security.

And here in Scotland, it is all the more important for everyone to recognise and value the fact that Scottish politics, while turbulent in recent years, has been almost entirely peaceful and democratic. There has been nationalist anger on the internet, and loyalist aggression in George Square on referendum night 2014. But at no time has violence become a factor in the constitutional debate taking place here. Issues of nationhood and secession are rarely pursued with such a determination, on all sides, to resolve the disagreements, through constitutional channels.

Last week we saw a profound confrontation of legitimacy between the the two governments of the UK mainland. It was a clash, as some construed it, between the Scottish Claim of Right and the British Crown in Parliament; between the principle that the people of Scotland have the sovereign right to choose the form of government that best suits their needs, and the sovereign right of a UK Prime Minister to say they can’t have it – at least for now. This is an existential question for many – a question of national freedom.

But there has been no militant wing of the Scottish National party preparing campaigns of civil disobedience or attacks on public buildings, nor have defenders of the Union been threatening to erect barricades. The blocking of indyref2 has been taken with remarkably little outrage from the wilder fringes of the independence movement. There have been no mass demonstrations, no flag burnings. No effigy of Theresa May has been hung outside the Scottish parliament for SNP supporters to throw rocks at. Where are the militant 45 group of Nationalists with their fearsome Harley Davidsons and big beards? In fact, the capital city has been eerily quiet given the enormity of the decisions being taken in Holryood.

In part this is because the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has made clear to her supporters that she has no time for hot-headed nationalists in face paint indulging in machismo displays of righteous anger on social media or on the streets. She devoted a large part of her speech at the SNP conference in Aberdeen to stressing the importance of understanding why those who disagree with independence have a legitimate point of view and deserve respect. “For every one of us who is full of excitement and anticipation”, she told her troops as she promised that there will be another referendum on independence. “there will be someone feeling nervous and anxious, perhaps even resentful”.

It is almost as if the SNP and the independence movement (wherever it is) think the game is all over – that independence is now merely a matter of time. They don’t have to shout any more because they’ve won, and the other side’s supporters have already left the stadium. This may be a delusion, because the UK state, even today, remains a force to be reckoned with. Theresa May is playing a waiting game, and while she has been careful not to rule out a referendum she hasn’t ruled one in either. Indeed, it is difficult to think of a time when she would actually feel one was justified, or politically conducive to a smooth Brexit.

The next two or three years will be testing times in Scottish society, and the people of Scotland will have to will have to work hard to ensure a safe landing. To paraphrase the old Chinese curse: may we all continue to live in uninteresting times.