Alex Salmond claims to be thrilled that so many people in Scotland are suddenly gripped by politics. The importance of the question before the Scots — the future of their 8.5 per cent of the United Kingdom — is only part of the reason. What really animates them is that the decision is in their hands, not Alex Salmond’s.
To see what happens when such genuine power-to-the-people is on display, consider the events of 425 BC. In their war against Sparta, the Athenians, masters of the sea, had trapped 420 Spartans on the island of Sphacteria. But it was proving difficult to get them off, and time was running out. In Assembly in Athens, the abrasive citizen Cleon (who had never held any military or other post) criticised the slowness of the operation, and turned his fire on Nicias, a senior general still in Athens, saying he (Cleon) could easily do it.
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