PETER HITCHENS: We ask the Scots to be 'loyal' - but we're the ones betraying Britain



I think we have lost Scotland. I felt it the other day, a disturbing sensation like that moment when the tow-rope parts, the strain too great for its rotten, decayed fibres to bear.



The sulky, puzzled feebleness of the London politicians’ arguments sounds desperate and defeated. Alex Salmond has already won the September referendum. Tell the Scots they can’t keep the pound, and they’ll just think quietly: ‘Oh, yes, we will. Try and stop us.’

And just imagine the reaction in a Scottish home when a friend or a relative phones from south of the border (as urged by David Cameron) to persuade them to vote against independence. Laughter would be the kindest response.



Alex Salmond has won Scotland, writes Peter Hitchens. Tell the Scots they can't keep the pound, and they'll just think quietly: 'Oh yes, we will. Try and stop us'

As for the Prime Minister’s threat to take the whole Cabinet to Scotland, the actual sight of this squad of third-raters and phonies on the streets of Glasgow or Stirling should make a Nationalist victory certain. What has Scotland to fear by declaring independence from this unprincipled, mumbling shambles?

As it happens, I am more grieved about this approaching divorce than most Englishmen will be. My earliest childhood memories are of the lovely coast of Fife, of Scottish voices and Scottish landscapes. I even like the sound of bagpipes.

And I grew up, in a Navy family, in that bleak but cosy era soon after the war, which had brought us all together in a warm Britishness that has now evaporated. I think we belong together, are stronger together and could defy the world together if we wanted.

David Cameron's allegiance to the EU automatically makes him the enemy of the Union of England and Scotland

But this does not stop me seeing what has happened. And I am amazed that so few have noticed the real problem. The leaders of the United Kingdom cannot argue for Scotland to stay in a country they themselves are working so hard to abolish.

Mr Cameron’s allegiance to the European Union (which is total and unshakeable) automatically makes him the enemy of the Union of England and Scotland.

Let me explain. The EU’s purpose is to abolish the remaining great nation states, carving them up into ‘regions’ that will increasingly deal direct with the EU’s central government in Brussels.

Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and Rome are allowed to retain the outward signs of power. But it is a gesture. All the real decisions are already taken elsewhere, from foreign policy and trade to the collection of rubbish and the management of rivers. Under this plan, England itself will cease to exist. The European Parliament gave the game away a few years ago by publishing a map of the EU in which all the regional boundaries were shown, but the word ‘England’ was not mentioned.

Meanwhile, the smaller nations of Europe are indulged by the EU, because (unlike the big countries) they are no threat to it. They are happy to be allowed a flag, an anthem, a well-paid political class, a little pomp and circumstance – and no real power.

Like many of the EU’s smaller members, Scotland is not big or rich enough to be truly independent. It can never hope to have its own free-floating currency, or its own armed forces capable of projecting power – the true indicators of sovereignty.

In truth, ‘independence’ will mean that Edinburgh becomes a cold vassal of Brussels, instead of a warm friend of London.

But since London itself has surrendered so much of its power and independence to the EU, this isn’t the major change it would once have been. If Scotland is going to be run from Belgium anyway, why let the power and money flow through London, rather than direct to Edinburgh?

Britain has given up its own national independence and sovereignty without a struggle. It is not a proper country any more. Having betrayed our own flag, we can hardly ask the Scots to be loyal to it.

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'Happy pills' won't help penguins... or anyone else

A flap over nothing: Reports that a group of Humboldt penguins were on antidepressants proved untrue

Stories that Humboldt penguins in Scarborough have been dosed with ‘antidepressants’ turn out – I am very glad to say – to be mistaken. The poor things have in fact been given Sporanox, an anti-fungal drug.

This might affect the creatures’ ability to drive or operate machinery, in the unlikely event that they wanted to. But it is not an ‘antidepressant’. And a good thing too. There is little serious evidence that these dubious pills do any good to humans, and a worrying correlation of their use with suicide and irrational violence.



This daft story was believed and spread only because most people have swallowed the drug industry’s myth that we have invented a medicine that will cheer people up when they are sad.



I suppose that if such a thing existed, it might work on penguins too. But as it doesn’t, it won’t.

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One ray of hope in the UK's demise

You might think (and I do) that the Tories secretly want Scotland to secede, cynically imagining that – by removing Scots MPs from Westminster – they will save themselves from otherwise certain defeat in the Election of May 2015.

I wonder if this plan will work? I hope not. I think the shock of actual Scottish independence will be huge when it comes. And I think the government that loses Scotland will not be readily forgiven.



People will be amazed at how quickly our world standing will sink. The departure of Scotland will alert the whole planet to how much we have in fact declined in the past 50 years.

You would be amazed how many people abroad still think we are the well-educated, well-governed, economically successful civilisation we were five decades ago. A border at Berwick, and the compulsory redesign of our national flag and our Royal Standard, will make them look again, and see what we have now become.

I think this will lead to some pretty radical changes in England. One of them might be that English people will at last grasp the true extent of the Tory Party’s treachery and incompetence. That would be one good outcome.

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Ever wondered why certain politicians and other public figures always look overweight, sinister or shady on TV? Well, maybe they’re like that really.



But there could be another reason. A friend, who worked for years in current affairs TV for an organisation I won’t name, tells me that cameramen would ask, before each interview, ‘Are we shooting for or against this person?’

There are many tricks, but basically the rule is ‘Shoot from above, and the interviewee is flattered. Shoot from below and he or she is uglified.’



Watch out for it.

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Prime Minister’s Question Time has had its day. It’s far too long anyway, but only works when the leaders facing each other across the Despatch Box actually disagree.