Want and Need

Take out the much higher number of Don't Knows, and the level of support for Scottish independence is in fact comparable in England to that in Scotland: a significant minority, but still a minority. (Note also that almost everyone in England has a view on whether this would require a UK-wide referendum, and that the two views on that question are evenly matched.)

The difference is that it increases as you go down the income and educational scales in England, whereas it increases as you go up them in Scotland. Pointing to what English, and especially Northern and Western English, grievance is really all about: not some "West Lothian Question", but cold, hard cash being poured into an area where per capita income stands at one hundred per cent of the national average.

Of course, far more of the monies extracted on pain of imprisonment from Shetland to Scilly are expended in the South East, Scotland's twin. Judging Scotland by the East End of Glasgow is like judging the South East by the East End of London. Better to think of Scotland as a bigger Surrey.

I am a leveller up, not a leveller down. I want both spending and outcomes in each of the 12 regions, since we must, to match each other by bringing everywhere up to the standard of the best. And, if that fails to be delivered, by docking the pay of the relevant Ministers. That is the basis for the Unionism that clear majorities in all four parts of the United Kingdom continue to want and need.