There haven’t been many moments of levity in the election campaign – but Stephen Flynn managed to provide one the other day.

The SNP’s Commons group leader attacked the UK Government’s record on defence, saying an independent Scotland would do a better job.

Well, it’s true that successive Westminster administrations have made a hash of keeping Britain safe, and now we’re paying the price.

The Middle East crisis has exposed the woeful state of our Armed Forces after decades of neglect by governments of different political stripes.

But the idea that the SNP would make a better fist of it as the governing party of an independent Scotland is plainly for the birds.

After all, this is the bunch who can’t even produce functioning ferries, let alone warships, or even dual the A9.

But Mr Flynn would have us believe that he and his chums would shape an effective fighting force and world-class navy.

How this would happen and where the money would come from is frankly anyone’s guess – but this is a campaign where it seems you can get away with saying just about anything.

When Mr Flynn spoke out on the issue on the BBC’s Any Questions? radio programme on Friday, no one picked him up on it, including the host Alex Forsyth, who is usually quick to step in with corrections or challenges.

The SNP has always got away with murder on this show and many others. Someone really should have asked: ‘Who do you think you’re kidding, Mr Flynn?’

Captain Mainwaring would have a lot more credibility than Mr Flynn and his colleagues when it comes to defending the realm. It’s a fitting analogy because at the time of the 2014 referendum, experts lined up to warn that independence would be a recipe for disaster – with a militia akin to Dad’s Army.

John Swinney would probably aspire to be Mainwaring, the reliable if pompous bank manager who runs the Home Guard, with Mr Flynn as the hapless Private Pike.

In reality, it’s highly likely that neither of them would have passed muster even for the task of defending Walmington-on-Sea from the Nazi menace.

Military matters were always a sore point for the SNP, and it’s a topic on which the party would prefer not to be challenged.

More than ever, we’re at the mercy of despots, and a US President who makes up the rules as he goes along.

These are powderkeg conditions. The impact on our economy has been severe and will be for months, if not years, to come.

Yet the SNP’s proposition, put forward with a straight face, is that now is the time to wrench Scotland out of the Union.

The demise of that historic partnership would be warmly welcomed in Moscow and make us easier prey for the tyrants.

Who knows what Donald Trump would make of it, given that he already has Greenland in his crosshairs?

Would he see Scotland as another target for acquisition, given his long-standing love affair with the land of his late mother’s birth?

It’s true that our defences have been worn down, something the Mail is attempting to reverse with our Don’t Leave Britain Defenceless campaign, which is calling on ministers to increase funding for the Armed Forces.

But the notion that Scotland would be safer if the country was torn out of the UK is untenable.

And the fact that it’s even deemed worthy of debate at a time of international turmoil is almost beyond belief.

Except we know the SNP would want to discuss independence in the middle of an apocalypse.

At times, it has felt as if this is exactly what we’re living through, with each day bringing us closer to the terrifying prospect of nuclear warfare.

Yet the useful idiots of the SNP and its Left-wing comrades in the Green Party – its prospective partner in government after May 7 – continue to lobby for the end of the Trident nuclear deterrent. It’s the worst possible time to be trotting out this student union bilge but it remains the formal position of the SNP.

The argument is that the money would be better spent on any number of other priorities – presumably state handouts and baby boxes.

That would be in line with the old slogan ‘bairns not bombs’, peddled by Yessers during the independence referendum and recycled for the 2015 General Election campaign.

In the real world, this kind of nonsense won’t wash, of course, but that won’t stop the SNP banging on about it.

It’s reckless and morally wrong to be pushing for nuclear disarmament when the threat level is rising.

But the SNP hierarchy know their powerbase won’t stand for anything else, even if the smart money says the party bosses would ditch their opposition to Trident in a heartbeat if they thought they would get any advantage from it.

Some experts theorised ahead of the referendum in 2014 that the Nationalists would drop their objections if they were allowed to keep sterling during independence talks.

It’s possible, but in the meantime, with the Middle East in flames, it serves the purposes of the separatists to press on with the CND routine.

Nationalism is a one-way ticket to geopolitical irrelevance, and its adherents must believe we button up the back if they think we’ll fall for it.

Going back to his performance on the BBC last week, it’s worth taking a look at one of Mr Flynn’s other claims.

His thesis that an independent Scotland would be stronger on defence is about as credible as his assertion that the UK Government is to blame for the SNP missing its own targets on tackling child poverty, supposedly Mr Swinney’s overriding goal.

Finding a scapegoat is in the party’s DNA but it’s grotesque when it’s used to spin the government’s appalling record on helping poor children.

All the stops are coming out to get your vote – and you can expect the half-truths and downright lies to ratchet up a gear or two over the coming weeks.

But no one should be under any illusion about the risk of backing Mr Swinney, who says an SNP majority would pave the way for a second independence referendum.

That means the stakes couldn’t be higher – but you can be confident that some of the loudest cheers if the Nationalists do secure a majority in May will come from the dictators who long for the end of the United Kingdom.