Scottish independence: the Union is endangered by premature and misguided complacency

Somehow I managed to miss Iain Martin’s praise for the manner in which David Cameron has “handled” the referendum on Scottish independence. Happily, John Rentoul has prompted me to take a keek at Iain’s article which, somewhat uncharacteristically, concludes that the Prime Minister has “played a blinder”.

This, as Mr Rentoul cautions, is premature praise. We are asked to believe that Cameron has pursued a policy of masterly inactivity. It is also suggested that securing a single-question referendum was a masterstroke rather than, well, the obvious outcome of a negotiating process between Edinburgh and London that was much less dramatic, and much less important, than everyone agreed at the time to pretend it was.

Of course, many pundits have sometimes suggested that Alex Salmond has been forced – by his own startling electoral success – to hold a referendum that, actually, he’d have been quite happy to avoid. I dare say I’ve made that suggestion too.