Með Lögum Skal Land Byggja

Ah, yes, the Shetland Question.

Shetlanders do not consider themselves Scots. The history of Wallace and Bruce is no part of theirs, to the extent that they wonder aloud why it is taught in their schools. Whereas, of course, it is part of the history of the English. By and at the time of the Union, Shetland was another Realm that happened to have the same monarch as Scotland. As also, for over a century by then, was England. It was quietly decided that the easiest thing to do was to ignore the situation. But aspects of Scots Law have been found not to apply in Shetland. And then, they struck oil...

Orkney is legally and culturally part of Scotland. But Shetland just isn't. I am told that the main option discussed there is that of becoming a Crown Dependency if the United Kingdom broke up. A fabulously rich one. And where would the Oil Republic of Scotland be then? Nowhere, that's where.

It is tempting to say that this hardly matters, since there is going to be a No vote to independence, anyway. But the genie might very well be out of the bottle in the Northern Isles. They might already be quite convinced that they want a better deal, in the way that Cornwall now is, or as the recent local elections in Mid Wales, especially the Independent landslide in Montgomeryshire, also strongly suggested. Moreover, the Northern Isles have quite some resource with which to bargain, and Shetland has an indisputable legal claim to be able to bargain at all.

Even in such citadels of the old Liberal tradition as Cornwall and Mid Wales, they can see that the Lib Dems are no longer worth the effort. If, as such, they ever really were. There is talk of Orkney and Shetland as their only Scottish seat in 2015. But why should they retain even that? Perhaps it is still too early to expect such tribally non-Labour voters to change. Especially since even 2015 will still be quite soon after the Blair years. But cannot figures be found to contest such seats with Labour's and the unions' support, on condition that they supported the Labour Government once elected?

Including by keeping it faithful to areas such as Cornwall and the wider rural West Country, one of the great heartlands of Radicalism. Including by keeping it faithful to areas such as Mid Wales and the more westerly and Welsh-speaking, less historically Labour-friendly, parts of North Wales, strongholds of rural Radicalism and of the Welsh peace tradition. And including by keeping it faithful to areas such as the Northern Isles and the rest of the North of Scotland, the land of the Crofters' Party, not least since the SNP will have been fatally wounded by the loss of the independence referendum only a few months before the next General Election.

Ed Miliband and Jon Cruddas, are you big enough to do this?