United, we fall
Sir: The Conservative party’s problem in Scotland cannot be solved by simply juggling with the identity of their Scottish party (‘The Tories’ plan to separate’, 7 April). David Cameron points out elsewhere that the Union now elicits at worst ‘a prevailing animosity’. This is surely due in the main to the evident antipathy in Scotland not only towards the Union but also towards England.
But there’s a wider and more transparent political truth. For the first time in many years, the Conservative party will go into the next election with a real chance of winning. For the first time ever, it will also be virtually invisible in three of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. Recent events in Ulster suggest in the long term a slow but peaceful slide towards a united Ireland. The Conservative party in Wales is of little consequence. The Conservative party in Scotland has for some time been in a mess, and for all David Cameron’s hopes it seems likely to remain so. A situation in which a British government in Westminster has virtually no representation except in England is unsustainable. There is, of course, one obvious solution.
Michael Sissons London WC2
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