Home rule for England, typically of your ilk you twist to suit your blinkered agenda. London is twice the size of Scotland and gets more money per head yet all the English anti scottish morons who write articles for the tabloids in England ignore that.

Using the argument many ignorant-of-the numbers English nationalists use i could argue that Scottish taxes are used to subsidise London. Except of course we never hear the numbers from them as it shows them up to be talking shite.

You cant criticise what Scotland gets while London gets more.End of. Northern ireland gets more than Scotland too yet seems to escape criticism. It is also conveniently ignored that Scotland has approx a twelfth of the population of the UK but over a third of the geographical area which makes maintaining infrastructure massively more expensive than it does in England. What's Londons excuse for getting all that money? "Begging subsidy junkies" are they? as the Scots often seem to be described.

Rather hopeful slanted article. Regularly suppport for a form of devo max stands at above 80%. Full independance currently is a toss of the coin job.
But here's the point , 4 years into a second round of Thatcherism Scotland didn't for? That makes things a fair bit more attractive for the SNP. That's the reason the SNP are hanging fire. Quite rightly so.
On the economy, if you ask Scots who they'd rather trust to run the economy, the moronic Osborne or Salmond you'd get a very clear answer.
Another thing to think about. Labour isn't trusted up here anymore and it would have to be them making the case for the Union. If the unionists were stupid enough to send Tories and Lib Dems up here to make the case then they'd be playing into the SNP's hands.
Here's hoping they do

But Benjamin, why should 4 years of a Thatcherite Government cause a problem? After all, Eck said, didnt he, that Scotland didnt mind Thatchers economic policies?

http://www.scotsman.com/news/alex_salmond_scotland_didn_t_mind_thatcher_...

As a Scot who lives and works in Scotland, I'm getting sick and tired of Salmond and the SNP presuming to speak for me, and trying to define how I should see my Scottishness. IE, it stops at a line on a map.

Since it really does look as if the Government is going to take up the Conservative peers' proposal to give the Scottish devolved body the power to legislate for an independence referendum, Alex Salmond's bluff is about to be called.

Independence is the issue that Salmond wishes would just go away. The present arrangement demonstrably suits him down to the ground. But his party possibly could not survive a No vote, and certainly would never forgive him either for such a result or for his failure to pose the question at all.

It is no wonder that the bluff-calling has come from that particular quarter. Among the longstanding electoral coalitions in Scotland is the one made up of moderate Keynesians, mild social conservatives, those who cherish shortbread tin Scottishness, posh people and those who aspire to be so considered, visceral enemies of municipal Labour and the trade unions, and a fringe of white Protestant supremacists.

That coalition's newer vehicle won the last Holyrood Election outright, giving Scotland the Tory majority government that England does not have. But that coalition's older vehicle has spotted the potential there: people like that are manifestly numerous enough to deliver such a victory, and their old party wants them back to that end. All that it has to do is force the newcomers out of the way.

Their failure to hold the referendum for which their party exists should do it. Their failure to win that referendum should do it. Quite plausibly, their failure to lose that referendum should do it, since after independence, how could the officially Tory party still be presented as English?

And what, exactly, would be the remaining point of the SNP, its many Hard Left activists having no sympathy whatever with the common or garden domestic policies that both its leaders and its voters would seek to pursue once the constitutional question was out of the way?

Alex Salmond is a remarkably skillful politician. He is going to need to be.

What pejorative tosh. But, hey, ya got a column in the New Statesman.

When, for instance, did the US last celebrate Separatism Day?

We need the NS to take a lead in redefining this debate. The union is bust, totally bust, and all of us, including the English, would benefit from a willing generous renegotiation to give each of the nations sovereignty, and create a new British confederation. Best of all worlds in a "velvet divorce".

Now, now John Ruddy. Edited quotes are always partial. Always quote fully. What Alex Salmond said was:

"The SNP has a strong, beating social conscience, which is very Scottish in itself. One of the reasons Scotland didn’t take to Lady Thatcher was because of that. It didn’t mind the economic side so much. But we didn’t like the social side at all. One of the most famous phrases in Scottish history is the ‘Community of the realm’ – I used it earlier. This idea that there is a community of interest stretching across the population. It’s a very Scottish concept and Scotland doesn’t like people who regale against it."

Claiming Alex Salmond is a closet Thatcherite is a bit rich coming from an Labour activist whose party fought tooth and nail in the 2011 Scottish elections against independence and campaigned to keep Scotland under the thumb of the Tory coalition in Westminster. Better Tory run than independent was the Labour slogan in Scotland in 2011.

More ill-informed, bitter nonsense from David Lindsay. I see that you're still trying to peddle the lie that the SNP is supported by a combination of "moderate Keynesians, mild social conservatives, those who cherish shortbread tin Scottishness, posh people and those who aspire to be so considered, visceral enemies of municipal Labour and the trade unions, and a fringe of white Protestant supremacists."

Let's look at those categories, will we? The first two groups will vote for any party in Scotland bar the SSP. The next three? Shortbread tin Scottishness...perhaps a very small proportion. Posh people and people who aspire to be posh? Represented in equal measure by Tories, SNP and Labour (remember that, as the-up to now-establishment party in Scotland, Labour has been a magnet for ambitious chancers). Visceral enemies of municipal Labour-well, yes: given that, apart from the fact both parties are vying for power with one another, municipal labour in Scotland is characterised by venality and incompetence. Enemies of the unions? Bullshit. White protestant supremacists? That's a lie, and you know it. Why don't you inform yourself of what you're attempting to comment on before you open your mouth and let your belly rumble?

Fergus,

I am sure Brown and Salmond have got a few quid but they did not get it by putting profit and business over people and their parents were not Lords, ladies and multi millionaires like some Tories and their voters. They came from relatively normal backgrounds rather than one of privilige and wealth. That is the difference and if you can't see it then I wonder what you have between your ears. Scottish people see it and that's why we utterly despise the toff public school rich Englishcentric Tories who seem to make most of their decisions from ideology.

Mike Cobley,
fair enough, that's your view. From my perspective anything that breaks up those scumbags grip on power ( and I'm not just talking about transitory governments) then it has to be a good thing. Who know's, perhaps the sight of a fairer, prosperous Scotland will change the consensus in England. By the way, I think your being a bit generous on Labour. Rather than a shred of social conscience they're just a little less viscious than the Tories to give the appearance of choice at the ballot box.

Home rule for England
In case you weren't aware, London has twice the population of Scotland. Just a thought