While the Tartan Army merrily satirises our dire footballing performances, the response among too many Scots to the country’s failures in other areas is to shrug and accept them as inevitable. The waters are muddied by unionist politicians like Gordon Brown who continue to peddle worn-out sophisms about how the country’s many problems can be overcome by continued constitutional tinkering which would still leave the main centres of industry, commerce, and fiscal control in the south-east of England.

More...