Time for No camp to reclaim patriotism from nationalists

THE Better Together campaign does not get enough credit.

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Led by now-Labour MP Blair McDougall and sadly missed ex-Chancellor Alistair Darling, the campaign that later, sensibly, chose to adopt the more succinct phrase, "No Thanks," was one of practical genius and necessity.

By focusing on solid and practical matters like currency, McDougall, Darling, and later Gordon Brown, alongside Willie Rennie from the Liberal Democrats and then-Tory moderniser Ruth Davidson, were able to blow fatal holes in a Yes campaign emboldened by optimism, positivity, discontent, and not much else.

It may be the last time in British political history that cautious and prudent scepticism managed to beat good vibes. When will we see those likes again? Settled as the question ought to have been, the disregard of the thumping rejection of independence by the people of Scotland is a scandal.

UNIONISTS should have the self-awareness to acknowledge that while they have been, for good reason, focused on the economic and political realities of breaking up the UK, the Nationalists have been allowed to bogart all talk of patriotism. Examples abound but the most recent is Tartan Week, New York's celebration of all things Scots.