Over the last seven years, the United Kingdom has come under increasing strain: Antony Tucker places the blame squarely on the Conservative governments.

Conservative short-termism has played into the hands of nationalists and put the Union under real strain.

The last few weeks have seen the parliaments in Holyrood and Westminster argue endlessly about a second referendum on Scottish separation from the UK. The threat of #indyref2 to the Union is real and present, and shows the nationalists’ true priorities. Realistically however, this is the result of seven years’ worth of Tory games with the fabric of our country, who have exploited the divisions between the peoples of this nation for their own gain. Always damaging, this has now reached the point at which the very survival of the United Kingdom is at risk.

Once, in the not so distant past, the Conservatives really were the “Unionist” party that they still claim to be. Throughout the fifties and sixties, Tory candidates in Scotland didn’t even use the “Conservative” label, picking up around half of the seats north of the border. All of this came to an end during Thatcher’s governments. Rather than trying to regain the support that her divisive and bigoted policies had lost, the Conservatives used Scotland as a test-tube for their worst ideas: it is no coincidence that the poll tax was first inflicted upon Scottish communities before its grasp was extended to the rest of Britain.

Coming back into power in 2010, David Cameron’s governments then seemed to want to make up for lost time, after thirteen years of opposition. At every point, the Tories seemed determined to drive a wedge between the peoples of our country. Handing more tax powers to Holyrood — which are not even used — legitimised the SNP’s aim of eroding the core of the Union. The Cameron government wanted to paper over the cracks in our democracy rather than fix the deep-seated problems caused by their obsessive centralisation of money and powers in Westminster.

Images like this one in 2015 stoked the phantom fears of a Labour-SNP pact, despite it being the Tories who represented the real threat to Britain’s unity

But it was the 2015 general election that showed just how little the Conservatives were interested in preserving national unity. The “threat” of an SNP-Labour coalition — a barefaced lie invented in Central Office — helped to swing voters in key constituencies to hand Cameron a narrow victory. This slim win was bought at the cost of setting England and Scotland against each other: Scottish voters were disgusted at being presented as a threat, whilst English voters were encouraged to fear their neighbours. What’s more, it only plays into the nationalists’ divisive narrative when we pretend that the SNP and Scotland are the same. That is exactly the lie they want to spread, and it is the argument of identity that true unionist politicians have to challenge.

The other part of Cameron’s poisoned legacy for the Union was the Brexit referendum of 2016. This was the result of his personal weakness, desperately giving into the far-right of his party and trying to compete with UKIP, rather than standing up for what he believed in. With EU membership a big issue during the original Scottish independence referendum — the hostility of many member states helping to scupper former SNP leader Alex Salmond’s plans — this was always a topic that the SNP would likely exploit. Simply to save his own skin, David Cameron launched a referendum he didn’t believe in that could yet split our country down the middle. Now Brexit is becoming a reality, Theresa May’s attitude to the renewed questions of Scots separation is only worsening the divisions between Holyrood and Westminster. Refusing point-blank to allow another referendum, even though most Scots voters currently oppose one — will only back up the SNP’s claims that Scotland is ignored in the long run, especially as a motion supporting #indyref2 passes has passed in the Scottish Parliament.

If the government truly wants to stand up for the Union, rather than posture pointlessly, then a good move would be to have all negotiations on independence before balloting the people. That way, instead of campaigns based on lies, hatred and fear, the results of a vote for separation would be clear. The delusions of the nationalists would be exposed. They want to keep the best bits of being British (the pound, the monarchy, Nato membership for example) without following immigration rules or contributing to our defence. This sort of “have-your-cake-and-eat-it” idea is only encouraged by referendums, but can be undermined by facts, provided they are clear and undeniable. Otherwise, vague threats about economics will be swept away by the force of identity, the heart overruling the head.

Now the UK teeters on the brink of collapse. To keep themselves afloat, both David Cameron and Theresa May have exploited the Union, rather than protect it as their predecessors did. This is not a surprise: Conservative practice in the twenty-first century is all about division. The employed are set against the unemployed; the British-born versus the immigrants papering over the Tories’ economic failings. English and Scottish, British and Irish: the short -term approach to power has just about kept the Conservatives afloat, but is now unsticking our Union. The SNP’s dominance in Scotland is not guaranteed to last, with their failings on education showing to voters that their obsession around ideology and separation comes before delivering services to Scots. They are being kept in power by the Conservatives’ fear-mongering, their belief in divide-and-conquer politics and a short term view of our Union.

We need a revived form of social unionism, where equality, democracy and prosperity are shared across the country and bind us closer together. The divisions in our nation are real and prevent us from dealing with the biggest issues of them all, because poverty, the environment and tax dodging cannot be solved by splitting ourselves into smaller and smaller blocs. Above all, the British identity needs to be built on co-operation, not conflict — equality, not exploitation. The Conservatives have forfeited the “Unionist” label: it falls to progressive politics to stick our country back together. I am proud to be British; born British, and I hope to die British too. That our identity and the survival of our nation has been sidelined by May and Cameron’s efforts at self-preservation shows that we have a stark choice: either unionism revived and renewed by the left, or else watch things fall apart.