Politics

The worst has not happened; Scotland has not seceded from the United Kingdom. But David Cameron will have known some time ago that, whichever side won in the referendum, there would be no victory. This morning, the United Kingdom wakes up to one of the biggest constitutional messes in its history. Given that the unionists had the best product to sell — Britain — it is alarming that they were supported by only 55 per cent of Scots. For months, the opinion polls had suggested far bigger support. The unionists may have won the election, but the separatists emphatically won the campaign. The Prime Minister had to turn to Gordon

Anyone listening to Alex Salmond’s final pro-independence rally tonight in Perth might have been forgiven for thinking the ‘Yes’ campaign was in the lead in the polls. He used most of it to congratulate his side for running such a successful campaign and for changing Scotland before the final result had even been declared. There was much less of a pitch for any undecided voters watching, unless the First Minister had concluded that anyone who was still wavering would be swayed by the idea that his guys had already won. listen to ‘Salmond: The referendum is ‘our opportunity of a lifetime’’ on Audioboo He told the audience that ‘what has emerged

I’ve just spent a couple of hours on the Burnhill estate in Rutherglen watching a group of Labour ‘No’ campaigners knock on the doors of voters to find out how they’ll be voting on Thursday. Burnhill is a tidy estate of mostly social housing and a Labour council ward. The local Labour MP Tom Greatrex and his colleague Graham Jones, visiting from Hyndburn, were part of the group. I was surprised by the number of ‘No’ posters on display in the windows. I was expecting a plethora of ‘Yes’ placards, but fewer indications of the households whose inhabitants plan to reject independence, but on this estate at least, it’s not

The point of being British is not banging on about being British. But when your country is three days away from being dissolved – in part because the emotional case for the UK has not been made properly – then people do start to say what their national identity means to them. The long list of Spectator readers’ letters was one example, and we were delighted to welcome a bunch of them for tea in the garden of at 22 Old Queen Street this afternoon. As you can see, we had four younger readers – this kind of captured the spirit of the rally. It was about family, in every way: people like me, who quite