However, there’s no doubt that the FM has the PM over a barrel when it comes to dishing out the Covid restrictions. For a start, he has a Cabinet where there is a sizable proportion of genuine dissidents – senior colleagues who argue long and hard against further clampdowns, never mind lockdowns – indeed one very senior minister, Lord Frost, walked out on the Government at the weekend citing that very reason.

There’s no such trouble in Edinburgh. Ms Sturgeon is blessed with a first team which can only be described as a “nodding donkey Cabinet”, where as far as we can see – which, to be fair, isn’t very far – there are no dissidents. Indeed, I don’t think there are even many arguments.

Furthermore, Mr Johnson has to face a Parliament where no fewer than 100 of his own side oppose what he’s doing in terms of restrictions, and where even the chairman of his backbenchers has urged them to send him an email during the Christmas recess if they want shot of Boris.

At Holyrood, there are no such problems, given that there exists a “nodding donkey parliament”, too. Not only does she have not a scintilla of criticism from her backbenches, she doesn’t seem to have any opposition from the opposition, either; a remarkable state of affairs in a parliamentary democracy.

It’s true that there are many feisty exchanges between Ms Sturgeon and Douglas Ross and Anas Sarwar, the respective leaders of the Scottish Tories and Labour, over various aspects of policy, especially the workings of the NHS. But over her general handling of the pandemic, there appears to be an astonishing accord between the parties which means that whereas Boris is battered and bruised by both those behind him and those in front of him in the Commons, Nicola sails serenely on.

However, with a population that is almost supine in its acceptance of whatever she tells them to do – including, for the second year running, the cancelling of Hogmanay celebrations – why should she worry?