My Unionist faith is wearing thin

How does a believer lose the faith? It might begin with some quibble about a point of doctrine: the Virgin Birth, for instance. The believer struggles intellectually but cannot accept the dogma. What starts as a quibble then turns into an obstacle; as the doubt grows, the whole belief system starts to unravel. One day it dawns on them that they no longer believe. Reader, I am myself undergoing such a struggle to maintain my political faith in Unionism.

I have been an instinctive, largely unquestioning Unionist ever since I became politically aware. The roots of my faith are simple enough: Scotland and England can do more together than individually. That and the fact of our shared history and land mass. And for most of my lifetime – some sixty-odd years – it seemed as if this generous, commonsensical view commanded a stable majority in both countries. However, as they are entitled to do, Scottish nationalists have waged a long campaign to dismantle the British state – and Unionists must answer the question; what is the Union for?

As an Anglo-Scot myself (my paternal forebears hail from Ayrshire) I never doubted that Scotland was different.