If Britain votes to leave the EU, Scotland could vote to end Britain

One of the things that worries me about a vote to leave the European Union (which I should like to cast) is that it might cause Scotland to vote to leave the United Kingdom. There’s not much point in ‘getting our country back’ if we then lose it, although I suppose English nationalists would not agree with my definition of ‘our country’. But the SNP threat needs thinking round carefully.

First, a threat is not a fact. Second, it cannot be right to disaggregate the United Kingdom vote in a United Kingdom referendum. It will certainly be interesting to find out how Scots voted, but if they vote differently from England, this will not invalidate the overall result. The same applies the other way round: if Scottish ‘Stay’ voters swing the balance their way, English ‘Leave’ voters should not complain that the result is illegitimate. Third, what would Scotland’s fate actually be if it joined the EU after ‘rUK’ left? Scottish Nationalists presuppose that free movement of Scottish trade, money and people to England would be permitted in all circumstances.