Politics: Alex Salmond’s three-card trick

Not since 1745 has the union been in such danger. It now seems certain that there’ll either be a referendum on Scotland leaving the union in 2014 or that Westminster will have to resort to using the Supreme Court to stop Holyrood holding the vote, handing the Nationalists a huge propaganda victory.
Support for independence in Scotland may stand at about a third, having not moved much over the years. But the campaign for it will be led by the most able politician in Scotland, the tactical equal of any politician in Britain, who runs the best campaign machine in the British Isles. No one should underestimate Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party.

David Cameron decided to act, I understand, after learning that Salmond was on manoeuvres. His aides had heard that Salmond would use the Hugo Young lecture later this month to announce that there would be a referendum in 2014, the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn.