Scots won't be able to serve as prime minister of the UK in the near future due to the legacy of the independence referendum, according to the Scottish secretary.
"I think it will be difficult for any Scot to take on a leadership job," said Alistair Carmichael, ruling himself out of being the next leader of his party, the Liberal Democrats.
"I don't think I'm the right person for it. When we're going to have a big transfer of power from Westminster to Edinburgh, it will be difficult, but not impossible, for a Scot to lead a UK party," he said.
Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, recently returned from a post-referendum holiday with a promise of devolution to deliver, and he is feeling the weight of Scottish expectation on his shoulders.
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"The referendum is not over until we've delivered on The Vow," said Carmichael.
The Vow is a reference to the infamous front page of the Daily Record, signed by the three UK party leaders, that promised more powers for the Scottish parliament if Scots rejected independence.
Carmichael is unsure if he saw The Vow before it was splashed on the Record: "Did I see the full text before it was published? I can't remember, to be honest, it was all happening in the midst of battle." However, he has since been given the unenviable task of steering the pledge through parliament.
"It's being honoured, absolutely," said Carmichael, although the process is going to be "difficult, let's not pretend otherwise". The plan is for the main points of agreement to be published by the end of November, with draft legislation drawn up before Burns Night in January, to be implemented in the next parliament.
Following through on The Vow will "complete the job of devolution", Carmichael said, and he's not concerned that increasing the power of the SNP-dominated Scottish parliament will act as a catalyst for independence: "Nationalists will always support more devolution because they see it as a salami-slicing approach that will lead to independence, but the people don't want that. They said that decisively."
The Scottish secretary is still recovering from what he calls "the great war of the referendum". He's had time to take stock of what went right, what went wrong, and how close he came to having to resign, as he promised to do if Yes won.
"I was constantly nervous for weeks, even months before it. There was an emotional intensity to the campaign which made it quite unlike any campaign I've ever been in. I never thought we were going to lose, but I always thought that we could."
Although the pro-union Better Together campaign "did the job that needed to be done", he would do some things differently with the benefit of hindsight. "We weren't as fresh in our campaigning as we needed to be. Occasionally, we didn't catch the mood in the way we ought to have done."
Carmichael's personal role in the referendum campaign was low-key, as was the role of the Liberal Democrats generally. Did he feel sidelined? "There's no point in being precious and stamping your foot and saying, 'I'm a cabinet minister and I demand my role!' Labour voices – Jim Murphy, Gordon Brown – needed to be heard."
On the morning after the referendum, he was "disappointed" but "not massively surprised" that David Cameron moved the Scottish debate on to one about English devolution.
"We knew he was going to say something in that direction but we didn't know what," Carmichael said. "I was disappointed that it was introduced in that time and that way, I think that was a moment just to talk about the outcome in Scotland."
Carmichael is "not closing the door on another referendum", but is critical of the SNP for talking about a repeat referendum in the near future, calling it a "remarkable breach of good faith" that breaks Alex Salmond's promise that the referendum would be "once in a generation".
One possibility for another referendum raised by incoming first minister Nicola Sturgeon is if Scotland voted to stay in the European Union while the rest of the UK voted to leave it in a proposed 2017 EU referendum.
However, Carmichael said an EU referendum in the next parliament is "highly unlikely" as he doesn't thinks the Conservatives will get back into power. He said that the SNP are purposefully misleading the public: "They see (an EU referendum) as their justification for keeping their second referendum aspirations alive, and that is enormously dangerous for Scotland, for Scottish business and Scottish jobs."
On top of talk of referendums and devolution, there's the small matter of a general election to fight; an election which Carmichael said will be "difficult" for his party, although he's "fairly confident we'll perform above expectations".
The Liberal Democrats are still the third party in the UK, said Carmichael, despite some polls having shown the SNP and UKIP have overtaken them. He doesn't believe UKIP "will get the seats in the House of Commons to make them players", and thinks talk of the SNP being kingmakers in the general election, and Alex Salmond replacing Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister, is fanciful.
"If the debate at the election is about the economy, which I expect, that will be enormously difficult for the SNP," he said. "They have opposed every single measure that was necessary to rebuild our economy so they've got no contribution to make to that debate." Instead, he sees "lots of reasons to believe we'll be back in a hung parliament with the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power again".
But one thing we won't see, on account of his nationality, is prime minister - or even deputy prime minister - Carmichael.