Spectator appeal: tell Scots why they should stay, and why Britain is worth saving

It’s extraordinary to think that we could be 12 days away from the destruction of our country. The union of Scotland and England, perhaps the most successful and consequential alliance in history, could be ended – and for the worst of reasons. The Scottish National Party has been campaigning hard, and campaigning well. Alex Salmond has excelled in depicting his enemy as a cold-hearted England whose values are so irreconcilable with those of Scotland that the only answer is the partition of (and, ergo, the end of) Britain

As a Scot with three English children, I loathe this agenda more than I can say. But it has been a mistake, in retrospect, for unionists to believe that the nationalist arguments are too bizarre or implausible to succeed. As Jim Murphy recently observed, there is an energy of nationalism which is not matched by the energy of unionism. When you hear Ed Miliband up there, wittering on about his energy price freezes, you can see why the passion – and the momentum – is with the nationalists.