If there is a case for remaining in the Union, a hard-headed case based on economics and judgement about the future, it certainly hasn’t been made by those Westminster Tories, led by Cameron, trying the ‘British patriot’ game on us. Of course there is a British dimension in almost every Scot. There are relatives scattered all over England, there are cultural interests in common, sporting interests, old military connections. I am ex-Royal Navy, and still have a lingering affection for that very British institution and its white ensign, despite Nelson’s signal at Trafalgar, and owe it a great deal in respect of my personal development.

But these are in the realm of sentiment.

Sentiment does not a breakfast produce for any Scottish family. If, as Cameron would wish, Scots vote in the referendum with their hearts rather than their heads, then the nation will cut its economic throat – there is nothing ahead as part of the United Kingdom except going downwards, permanent heavy unemployment, and cuts, cuts, cuts that will rend our social fabric.

Here’s a sobering fact. The Budget cut another £10bn from public expenditure. For every £10 of cuts the Treasury aims to impose, we have only suffered one so far. There are a further nine to go. As Nick Brown the Labour MP pointed out in the Budget debate, as well as the additional £10bn cuts in this Budget, there will be an additional £8bn in 2015-16, and another additional £15bn in 2016-17.

The way unionists talk about the benefits of being part of a big G20 country, you would think we were living in a successful paradise. The brutal reality is that Osborne will have to borrow at least £120bn this comin...

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They were wetting their pants with excitement in Downing Street and the Foreign Office when it was announced that David Cameron would fly on Air Force One during his recent visit to the United States. The usually staid Daily Telegraph was, if not excited, impressed: “The fact that Mr Cameron will be the first foreign leader to be given a ride aboard Air Force One suggests more than the normal courtesies are in place.” Gee-whizz, jings crivvens, Merkel, Sarkozy, those preening Eurocrats styling themselves as Presidents, they never had a ride on the big jet as a prize, a signal sign of presidential approval, for being such good chaps as the Brits have proved in support of American policy – you name it, any policy. I find it hard to [...]

There was an orgy of self-congratulation at Holyrood, Thursday 1 March. Each MSP was telling the others how virtuous they were, how deeply concerned they were about the fate awaiting the poor of this world, and how this small nation of five million people is making a great contribution to saving them. It was one of those green global warming days when grown men and women take leave of their senses, and swallow any piece of propaganda aimed at them by the vested NGO interests who, without us being scared to death, would be out of funds. While more and more scientists are writing to demolish the allegation that humans are in charge of the planet’s climate, and the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change has been exposed as the [...]

So, the high and mighty Prime Minister of the United Kingdom comes to Scotland, treats us like an Oliver Twist, onto whose devolution plate he might, only might, mind you, dollop additional powers – but only if we do his bidding and reject independence. Am I the only Scot who thinks it insulting to be told, “be a good boy, do what I tell you, and you might get a sweetie”? The Cameron ploy, which some older journalists have pointed out, is not new. Sir Alec Douglas Home played the ‘we’ll give you more powers’ game in the 1979 referendum and helped sink the proposed Scottish Assembly. He was, of course, vague about what those better powers would be, but nevertheless too many Scots fell for it, and we failed [...]