Alistair Darling, braveheart.

When the unionists were looking for a hero to fight Alex Salmond, no one really thought of grey old Alistair Darling. He was the human fire extinguisher, sent into blazing departments to make them so boring that no smoke – or anything else – ever emerged. But now, he is taking a torch to Salmond’s mutating, flaky case for independence. Salmond and David Cameron are expected to sign a deal on Scottish referendum tomorrow, and Darling is itching to get his “yes to the union” campaign started.

On the BBC’s Sunday Politics, he said he is  looking forward to cutting through Salmond’s “bluster and the nonsense.” I always suspected Salmond was angling for a compromise, knowing his independence daydream was not shared by those who would have to live with the consequences. This now won’t happen. There will be just one question, which Darling wants set by the Electoral Commission. The wording is crucial: Lord