IT IS September 19th 2014 andâ??confounding the opinion pollsâ??Scotland has voted â??yesâ? to independence. You, Alex Salmond, are elated. You, David Cameron, are distraught; you are already being lambasted as the prime minister who botched Britainâ??s 307-year-old political union. There are noisy calls for your resignation. Prior certaintiesâ??such as the contours of Britainâ??s general election in 2015â??are melting in the late-summer sun. Emotions in both nationalist and unionist camps are raw. One side feels triumphant, the other utterly humiliated.
In short, this is a terrible time to begin the most complicated and sensitive internal negotiation in modern British history. And yet you will have to conduct it. Even you, Mr Cameron, pre-emptively declared the result of the referendum binding. There will be â??no second chances,â? you insisted; a â??yesâ? vote will mean splitting the union. On some subjects, the two of you will find that the interests of Scotland and the remainder of the United Kingdom (the RUK) overlap. On many others you will be rancorously at odds, and your electorates in no mood for compromise.
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