Since the Middle Ages, Scots have been entertaining themselves during the long winter nights with a dialectical tradition called “flyting”. This is a form of conversation in which you knowingly subject your friend or colleague to verbal violence and insult. Weepy millennials should not try this at home. Flyting began in the 16th century as a contest between poets, or “makars”, to see who was capable of the most imaginative invective – a bit like rap. It became a widespread mode of social intercourse among working people in homes and hostelries. The abuse is, of course, an ironic form of affection, of bonding – a demonstration that your relationship is so strong that you can playfully abuse each other. But it’s something that is almost impossible to explain in the age of social media and the tyranny of the literal. And with the SNP’s Hate Crime Bill now passed into law, flyting is finally grounded.