A couple of days after the third tipping point of the year – the autumn equinox – there’s an unprecedented number of runner beans still on the stem and there for the picking. I’ve never seen the likes. Does it foretell a cold winter? Is it consolation for a summer barren of retail therapy? Could it be the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden: “Eat those beans, and you will never win the lottery”?

But seriously – it’s good to think if the present as a tipping point. I have a wee blog up on Sceptical Scot, offering a different approach to the constitutional wrangle that dominates Scottish politics. And I’m pleased to enter a challenge to Kenny MacAskill to enlarge his thinking; he shouldn’t go using John Costello, former Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, without respecting his early ambition for peace and unity. Read my comment at the bottom.

And are we at the tipping point of Boris Johnson’s premiership? I’ve just finished reading Mary Trump’s account of how her family “created the most dangerous man in the world”. There are similarities, and the deep point to make is: don’t blame them for being what they are; blame the people who lie on their behalf, masking and facilitating their patent unsuitability for the job. As Mary Trump observes, they end up being weaker than Johnson and Trump respectively, and they certainly shouldn’t expect reward for their loyalty.

Other things also tip. Meanwhile, from Leith: PERSEVERE.