As a principled anti-nationalist, I hope Scotland doesn’t vote for independence, and stays with us English. If I were a Scot, however, I might feel otherwise. The Scottish political discourse really is very different from the Southern English – more social-democratic – which explains much of the Scots’ feeling of alienation from the Eton-Bullingdon-Buckinghamshire set that are governing us today. That’s another reason why I hope they stay with us; without them there would be a perpetual Tory (or UKIP) majority in England, leading to even more horrors than we are suffering now. 

I see, however, that some Scottish nationalists are fishing for a new union with the Scandinavian countries, whose social politics are really very much closer to the Scots’. There are other links too: lochs (fjords), a liking for strong liquor, and the fact that Scotland was actually a part of (Viking) Denmark for (?) 200 years. Much of this however applies to my part of England – the North – too. Most of that was part of the ‘Danelaw’. Many place-names around me are Nordic. And the real gulf between the two Britains today – widening and deepening year by year, a survey tells us today – comes not at the River Tweed, let alone Hadrian’s wall (at present all in England), but at the Humber-Mersey. If Scotland does break away and join Scandinavia, can it take us with it too?