Parties Over

No more all-white rule means no more BNP. They'll all walk out. The all-white rule was why they joined. It was also a very good argument against them, now gratuitously destroyed, even though in some form they will be back.

And what of the SNP? I have long argued that Salmond was the biggest Unionist of the lot. He has now proved it. The odd clap line, not even about independence itself, but merely about a referendum. And everything else about the price of shoring up a minority Tory Government at Westminster, even if no one would bet on 20 MPs.

Everyone knows that Labour will never touch the SNP, always known as "the Tartan Tories". Most of its voters would vote Tory if the SNP were not there. The Conservative Party at Westminster now uses the term "the Cameron Highlanders", and recognises as much a member of the family as ever the UUP was while a small official body nevertheless existed in Northern Ireland.

So, for whom are serious supporters of Scottish independence now going to vote? And why?