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Faced as we are with the prospect of the SNP wining the Scottish Parliamentary elections next year and then calling a referendum on Scottish independence, it is amusing that some commentators do not seem to understand that this would be the cause of the break up of the United Kingdom. David Clark a former Labour government adviser writes in the Guardian asks

“can a Conservative opposition desperate for power resist the temptation to abandon its unionist principles for a shallow, opportunistic and resentful English nationalism? It is in precisely this backlash that the real threat to the union lies.”

If the SNP do gain enough seats in the Scottish parliament they will call an independence

referendum in Scotland this as Clarke points out could mean that “it is not inconceivable that divorce proceedings could begin as early as next year.” It is hard to understand given these actual circumstances why Clarke believes the real threat to the Union lies in “resentful English nationalism”

Clark dismisses the polls indicating a majority support for independence because he says they are nothing new, and have anyway “never been anything more than a way of giving vent to a generalised sense of political discontent or protesting about specific issues such as job losses or the poll tax”

He says “Scottish voters want to give New Labour a kick, but there is no reason to suppose that their underlying calculation about where their interests lie has changed.” He says the SNP arguments would crumble under scrutiny and “This realpolitik calculation will always triumph over the romantic illusions and self-pity that comprise modern Scottish nationalism”

Thus eagerly dismissing the fact that now for the first time the Scots have their own parliamentary institution which would focus the demands for independence and channel opposition to the union into real political moves to create an independent Scotish state. Clarke frees himself from reality in order to attack the English for demanding parity within the union, and the Conservatives because more people in England vote for them.

David Clark is a former Labour government adviser, which is perhaps why he fantasies that the Scottish parliament was necessary to keep the union together and cannot see that it will become the cause of Britons demise, as a government adviser he would have been happy that the devolution process allowed the Scots and the Welsh their own parliament but that England was to be broken up into nine regions, which is why possibly he did not mention the effects of the EU in the regionalisation process. Or the fact that the EU is the backdrop against which the Scots are demanding independence or that in reality the Scots do not want independence because they would remain within the EU.