 David Torrance   Whether Unionists Like It or Not, Scottish
Independence - However Defined - Is Now a Serious Proposition
Posted: 12/02/2014 17:02  Writing shortly before another
Scottish referendum in 1979, William McIlvanney looked back on
four years of debate about devolution, "where every quibble was
a Russian doll of other quibbles". "Passion", he judged, "was
neutered by boredom". The novelist also highlighted the
contradictions in both Scotland ("a country" he judged,
"nominally Socialist and blatantly conservative") and the SNP
(which had "recognisable features but no coherent identity").
He could have been describing the remarkably similar debate that
has gripped Scottish (and to a lesser extent UK) politics since
May 2011, indeed the journalist Neal Ascherson has described the
forthcoming independence referendum as 'little more than the
third putting of the same question'. Only in 2014 Nationalists
and Unionists increasingly fight over the middle constitutional
ground, more autonomy rather than t