One week to save Britain

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[/audioplayer]Next week, the most important vote in recent British history will be held. Indeed, it may well turn out to be one of the last ballots in British history. Seven months ago, this magazine devoted its front page to warning that the United Kingdom was at grave risk of dissolution. The unionist apparatus had decayed, argued Alex Massie, and Alex Salmond was the best late-stage campaigner in Europe. The SNP deployed the language of nationhood and destiny, while the ‘no’ campaign droned on about the Barnett Formula. The conditions for calamity were in place.

At last, the Prime Minister has realised the seriousness of the threat: a ‘yes’ vote would end his political career, but that would be the least of it. The United Kingdom, the greatest union of countries that the world has known, would be dissolved — and for the worst of reasons. There is a pitifully thin logical case for separation: devolution has so far done little for Scotland’s public services, so more powers are unlikely to bring more help. But this debate has come down to something else: the SNP has been able to articulate the emotional case for a separate country. Britain’s politicians don’t seem to be able to make the case for Britain.

The British public have no such inhibitions — if The Spectator’s postbag is anything to go by. Almost everyone who responded to our request for readers to write in with reasons for Scots to stay has made the argument that so many unionist politicians seem unable to comprehend: that the importance of Britain is about identity, belonging and nationhood. It’s about a shared history and shared prospects, of tolerance and being tolerated.