Power concedes nothing without a demand. Devolution was conceded due to demand, not because the Westminster government decided it would be nice. And the demand was backed up by the “threat” as Westminster would see it of independence. With that threat gone – as it would be with a No vote – whatever demand still exists can safely be ignored. Why would they pay attention to it? They can validly say Scots voted to stay in the UK. The very fact that there is no “second question” is indicative of that. It has become a binary choice. Status quo or independence. There is no halfway house on offer.

Scotland lack of cultural confidence has many historic causes and unlike Catalonia Scotland has many different cultures. The culture of Shetland is very different from the culture of Glasgow or yet again from the culture of Lewis. I personally think there needs to be more encouragement of all off these different cultures as each represents an aspect of Scottishness.

But it’s a two way thing. Catalonian confidence is linked to the decline in identification with Madrid. Scots have also come a long way it’s just that we tend to take it for granted. Who would have imaged devolution during the dark days of Thatcherism, or a SNP majority, or the wipe out of the Tories and recent decline of Labour.

If Catalonia breaks free then the whole dynamic inside the EU changes. As a news item on Catalonia said they have already managed to get a source inside the Commission to admit that there is no mechanism for a part of the EU reapplying to become a member. In other words all the stuff about having to leave the EU and reapply is just bluster.

My point is that Alex Salmond’s declared aim is bound to fail because the internal dynamics within the SNP meant that he had no choice but to push for a referendum even though we Scots are not yet ready to make that leap.

But, on the other hand, the British State is weaker now than ever it has been. The British establishment is likely to see off the referendum and will tighten things up to avoid this happening this way again but they can’t escape the basic decline of Britishness.

For example, English Votes for English Laws will weaken Britishness but can’t be avoided unless they go for an English Parliament, but an English Parliament would soon challenge the UK Parliaments authority. Every way they turn presents dangers.

This is why Thatcher and Major held out against devolution, because once you start unravelling the British Constitution it falls apart because for historical reasons Britain was hamstrung in forming a proper British nation and instead had to allow Scotland its distinct institutions.

My hope for the future lies in the tide of history which is running against Britain as a state, just as it is running against Spain. The Catalans have been emboldened by Alex Salmond and we will be emboldened by Catalonia as it pulls away from Spain. There is little Spain or Britain can do to stop this general trend.

In fact the contradictions of Britain are all around us to see. Since devolution England has moved inexorably to the right, while Scotland, Wales and N.I. have not. The pulling apart is on both sides. Eventually politics will catch up and Britain will become less and less meaningful as a political concept. When we separate it will seem natural. It doesn’t yet, which is why I feel we’ve some way to go.

So much for the philosophy, and it looks like Alex Salmond has played a blinder. What the SNP wants – as in the vast majority of the SNP’s membership – is a straight yes-no referendum. Alex Salmond has lead the SNP for half his adult life. Having shown gradualism works, with his 2011 parliamentary majority at Holyrood, he is delivering what he was appointed by the membership to do.

Britain isn’t a liberal democracy any more, and is suffering an increasingly rightward drift under a governmental elite that has mediocrity at its heart. Scotland doesn’t have to be like that, and all the indications are that the majority of Scots prefer the SNP’s approach, based on a social-democratic analysis of society, and the values that implies.

RUK desperately needs reform, but despite the Lib-Dem veneer (as in paper thin!) what it has currently is actually a very reactionary government that has no vision of where it wants to go, but just wants to protect entrenched privilege, and will happily sit out decline on that basis. Just read George Orwell – he wasn’t just another old Etonian!

PS – done a spell check this time!

I’m not a subscriber to the ‘independence is inevitable’ theory, and believe that the process of assimilation runs in parallel to any process of ‘increased confidence’. Ah well, there you go.

They are going to seize the opportunity to try to see off the SNP for good. Cameron’s behaviour needs to be seen in that light. He sees all this as giving Salmond enough rope to hang himself. If the concede all of Salmond’s demands and gets a straight yes no vote then they calculate Salmond will have nowhere to hide after the referendum. He won’t be able to blame the British State because it bent over backwards.

All of Cameron’s actions are focussed on what happens after the referendum is defeated. As I say above they plan with their idea f a British Constitutional Convention to get a much more rigorous constitution that will make the SNP’s room for manoeuvre more restricted. They also hope the new tax raising powers will favour the Tories as they can campaign in Scotland on a low tax ticket and also favour more traditional class politics i.e., Labour versus Tories.

We’ll see if it pans out as they hope but one thing’s for sure, all of the British establishment including the Scottish wing (think BBC, press, unionist parties) will pile opprobrium on Salmond after the referendum and there will be a concerted effort to bolster British National identity and to rubbish Scottish Nationalism as a philosophy that the Scottish people have rejected.

Despite ignoring the “the an” typo and reading this sentence a dozen times, I have no idea what it’s supposed to mean. It APPEARS to say that it’s somehow impossible for the SNP to win both the referendum and the 2016 Holyrood election, which would be a baffling assessment. What’s it meant to say?