Early in the campaign for Scottish independence the SNP commissioned a party political broadcast called Two Futures. It told the story of Kirsty, a baby due to be born on polling day. ‘What kind of country will I grow up in?’ she asks in a childish falsetto.
One vision of the future is full of colour and gap-toothed smiles, with children skipping and laughing on their way to school. A nuclear family sit around the breakfast table in a sun-kissed kitchen eating fruit (this scene acts as a useful reminder that the broadcast is set firmly in the realm of fantasy).
The alternative is a future in which Scotland votes to remain in the United Kingdom. In this monochrome dystopia the Palace of Westminster looms above an innocent child. She sits with a teddy bear in silhouette beneath the projected image of a chain-link fence. Then a tank rumbles over her head.
The SNP can be forgiven for being schmaltzy; their strategists believed that if they lost the referendum it would rob the party of its purpose.
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