Unionist gold

Britishness was supposed to be finished, its last flickering embers to be snuffed out by Alex Salmond when he holds his 2014 referendum on breaking up the Union. The London Olympics, the Nationalists claimed, would be the last at which the Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish would be teammates. The Scots, supposedly on the brink of a nationalist awakening, would cheer on their countrymen but feel no more pride in an English win then they would a French one. Pete Wishart, an SNP MP, served notice that ‘Scotland has absolutely no interest in Team GB’.

But as the Games draw to a close, the SNP will have learned a lot about Scotland and its interests. From Exeter to Edinburgh, from Islington to Inverurie, viewers in their millions roared in support of Jessica Ennis and the rest of Team GB as they sped up the medal table. The Union flag, so derided by the Nationalists, has been ubiquitous.

It is unlikely that there will be any political winner of the 2012 Games — except perhaps Boris Johnson — but already it is clear that Salmond and his SNP are the losers. To the First Minister, sports and politics have long been fused together.  His referendum will be a question of identity: do you regard yourself as British? Would you like to remain so? The feeling of national pride, of seeing your ‘team’ win, is — for Salmond — a crucial ingredient in a battle that is as much about belonging as it is about economics.

It was Andy Murray’s Olympics victory that gave Scottish Nationalists the perfect lesson in how it is possible to be both proudly Scottish and British. As a young player, Murray once got himself into trouble by saying that he would support anyone but England when it came to the football World Cup.