Why are the SNP Talking Scotland Down?

These days “Talking Scotland down” is both the gravest sin imaginable and the standard SNP response to any suggestion there might be even the occasional or minor drawback to independence. Thus when Philip Hammond makes the obvious point that Rump Britannia might not build warships on the Clyde he’s being “anti-Scottish”. Thus too when George Osborne suggests some firms might want the constitutional questions – including EU-access – clarified to assist their long-term planning he too is guilty of “talking Scotland down”.

It is true, as Joan McAlpine says, that we have been here before and the sky did not fall. True too that Osborne could not name any firm reconsidering its Scottish plans for the very good reason that a) he couldn’t and b) he was speaking generally or theoretically rather than specifically. Nevertheless, all this is a reminder – should you need it – that Unionism is only now beginning to train for the fight.