4th December 2013

Viewed from the Scottish side, across the Solway, England seems to be a distant land.

In practise door to door to the hotel at Powfoot it is a little less than thirty miles in distance and using the M6 and the dual carriageway, by-passing Gretna and Annan, about half an hour in travel time.

It may well soon seem much further.

It could well be another country, independent, with its own Parliament, its own currency and its own laws.

It could be that in due course the Reivers will return. Exercising their own rule over the debatable lands.

As happens on the border between North and South in Ireland goods that attract varying levels of taxation from one side of the border to the other will be sold openly or covertly at the Markets on either side.

That could see the renaissance of Gretna Market.

The Solway could even echo with the sound of high speed launches running the gauntlet of the customs boats patrolling the changeable waters.

And on one side an emasculated Union Jack will the face the Saltire on the other.

The passion to control your own destiny, to take charge of your own future is driving independence movements from East to West, Slovakia in the East to Catalan in Spain.

Scottish Nationalism and the independence campaign is part of a wider nationalist aspiration, if it happens its impact on the geographical area known as North Britain will be significant.

And its all happening on the Unionist watch.

Under David Cameron leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party the desire for independence in Scotland will doubtlessly be answered by similar calls from Wales, from Cornwall and elsewhere.

In many ways it makes sense.

Speaking recently to an English friend permanently resident in Scotland, she described the NHS in Scotland as second to none. Our own experience confirms this. And interestingly the advice and support we received during a critical time whilst on holiday in Scotland,  dismissed by the specialists in England, has been proven to be correct.

If a newly elected Scottish Government is able to model itself on Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway it could start to pull away, economically, socially and culturally from its southern neighbour.

Grangemouth may well prove to be another signifier.

How a Scottish Parliament will, or would have, addressed the sharp issues surrounding the face off between a workforce and the owner of the business, behaving for all the world like a Victorian Magnate, locking the gates and slipping the key into the pocket of his waistcoat.

For the First Minister that must have been a testing time and the Unions acceptance of changing work and employment practises must have been extremely welcome, but it was a warning to both sides that these huge enterprises belong in the widest sense under public rather than private control simply because they require management that recognises that they are a public good and anything that threatens the benefits that arise constitute a moral hazard, whether it is aggressive union practises or take it or leave attitudes on the part of management.

With social care and education already different north of the border Scotland has been carefully marking out its territory for some years, the changes that follow independence will gradually shape the country but someone visiting today, five years or ten years from now will I suspect begin to see a nation focused on understanding and implementing the ideal of the common good. A big society in a small country.

And England will have to take notice and learn how to live differently.