HEAR that? Was it the sound of Rabbie Burns spinning in his grave at an unforgivable misuse of his egalitarian, republican anthem? Or was it the sound of the Her Majesty the Queen being sensationally trolled?

As Her Maj left the debating chamber at Holyrood on Saturday, she did so to a bagpipe rendition of A Man’s a Man for A’ That, Burns’s classic declamation against defamation.

True, it was performed by Sheena Wellington at the Parliament’s official opening in 1999, and again by Midge Ure in 2016. But that doesn’t stop it being one of the most splendid expressions of a socialist message pre-Marx.

True, Brenda had left the chamber by the time Sturgeon, Swinney et al began to sing. On the pipes, SNP MSP Stuart McMillan seemed oblivious as the singing politicians fell out of tune. And the most visceral lines of Burns’s verse are towards its end:

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an’ a’ that;
But an honest man’s abon his might,
Gude faith, he maunna fa’ that!
For a’ that, an’ a’ that,
Their dignities an’ a’ that;
The pith o’ sense, an’ pride o’ worth,
Are higher rank than a’ that.

The Queen and Prince Charles had just listened to a series of pretty deferent speeches from the party leaders – with the admirable exception of Richard Leonard’s, which left the pair of them rather stony-faced. Former Daily Record editor Murray Foote said he was “taken by the chutzpah” of Leonard “decrying multi-millionaire landowners in front of Brenda.”

The royals have entered this unicameral parliament time and time again, while in London the most they can hope for is a door slammed in Black Rod’s face and a reception in the House of Lords.

Now here they were being tunefully told to know their place. But then again, Holyrood always was a place of contradictions.