Romans, we have lost a great battle,”, said the matter-of-fact Roman magistrate to the assembled Roman people after the Carthaginian leader Hannibal crossed the Alps to attack Italy.

“Wars are not won by evacuations,” said Winston Churchill after rescuing the remnants of the British army from Dunkirk.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has a reputed liking for classical quips and Churchillian bluster, is sure to know that in both cases the side that uttered these words – words of steadfastness in the face of defeat – went on to prevail. Rome, after being eviscerated at the Battle of Cannae, did not panic, but rallied round and went on to defeat Carthage, eventually razing the city to the ground.

The Allies, after fleeing with nothing but their lives from continental Europe in 1940, went back in 1944 and reached Berlin.

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As my father used to say, “It’s not the start, it’s the finish.” Ultimate victory goes to those who hold out. Hold on. Stand firm.

Above all, plan and build. Rome defeated Carthage in part because the democratic elements of the Roman constitution gave the people a stake in their own country, which ordinary Romans were willing to fight and die for.

When the Roman army was wiped out, the Roman people raised another one. They had too much skin in the game to give up at the first blow – and they were willing therefore to commit their resources to the struggle.

Likewise, the Allies defeated Nazi Germany not principally through individual acts of bravery – although there were many – but through concentrating on logistics and planning. They thought of nearly everything. My favourite anecdote is that Field Marshal Montgomery sent six dentist’s chairs ashore in the Normandy landings, because “a soldier with toothache cannot fight”.

All this “so famed in martial story” stuff is, of course, quite different from the approach of the Scottish independence movement. Our movement has always strictly adhered to a peaceful, lawful, democratic transition to independence.

The Scottish Government’s latest policy paper, Scotland’s Right to Choose: Putting Scotland’s Future in Scotland’s Hands, is absolutely right to insist that the process of transition to independence must be in accordance with this tradition. If we want to build a peaceful, lawful, democratic state afterwards, there is no other way. States born of conflict die in conflict. We have to do it right and must start as we mean to go on.

This has two implications. Firstly, the route to the referendum has to be a lawful one. There is no point in holding a referendum the validity of which is disputed. It might be a grand gesture, but it would be a futile one.

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Secondly, at some point – whether before or after the result – there has to be a negotiated settlement in which the UK Government commits itself to recognising an independent Scotland, if that is indeed what people vote for. Without that agreed process to recognition, independence is economically, politically and diplomatically doomed.

I know this is terribly frustrating. It feels like we are sitting on our hands. It is tempting to look for shortcuts, but there are no shortcuts. We must ignore the constitutional quacks touting clickbait answers (The One Secret Trick That Makes Unionists Mad). No doubt tempers will flare. Weak hearts will crumble. Hold on. Steady the buffs.

We need proper authorisation, but we are demanding it, not begging for it. That authorisation is theirs to give, but not theirs to withhold. If they say no, we respond with Kenyon Wright’s motto: “We are the people, and the people say yes.” Persist.

The forces of Toryism control England. Economically and politically the squeeze will be applied tightly. We have already seen the Conservatives’ constitutional agenda and it is very ugly indeed. There is no point in fighting them on their own ground, or in wasting effort trying to oppose them in rearguard actions. They have a crushing majority and will win. We are heading into wilderness years. What’s coming at Scotland under Johnson will make the Thatcher years seem like a golden age.

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Hold on. Fear not. Remember those a quarter of a century ago who stood in the cold, on long winter nights, outside the old Royal High School building in Edinburgh, keeping up their vigil for a Scottish Parliament. It all seemed so far away then, so impossible, in the face of an intransigent Tory majority in Westminster. But they held on. They did not fear. They built and planned, waiting – actively waiting, passionately waiting – until devolution ceased to be a fringe idea and became the settled will of the people.

Likewise, we should look to the future, creating the broadest possible consensus around a constitution for the new Scottish state. Then, when the day comes – as come it will, for all that – we will be ready.