Unionists must stop playing by separatists’ rules

Whenever a new poll on Scottish independence is published, my phone begins buzzing so frantically it starts to register on the Richter scale. London-based editors want to know what it means. London-based politicians want to know what can be done to stop it meaning what they fear it means. The polls are not great for the Union these days and Wednesday’s, showing support for Scexit at 58 per cent, is further proof of the threat facing the United Kingdom.

It’s only natural that this alarms instinctive Unionists but their Unionism could be a little more attentive. The United Kingdom has been under threat for years now, at least since the dawn of legislative devolution and especially after the SNP took control in Scotland in 2007. Meanwhile in Cardiff, Welsh Labour’s nationalism — far more electorally successful than the brand of ancient resentment and cloying self-pity offered by Plaid Cymru — has steadily come to find institutional expression in the Senedd, as documented here last month by Theo Davies-Lewis.