What's Up with Scotland?

Britain just went through a bout of elections are various levels of government, including a referendum on proportional representation that was thoroughly smashed at the ballot box.  More interesting to the broader shape of the country's political makeup is the results of the elections for the Scottish Parliament which have left Alex Salmond's Scottish National Party with a majority.  A mandate they believe to hold a referendum on whether Scotland should separate from the United Kingdom.

I can't help but think that this divide in the makeup of the United Kingdom isn't at its core the result of the fundamental shifts in the British economy since Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s and the drastic effect it had on Scotland.  Deindustrialization and financialization destroyed the Scottish economy as it was and the traditional party of the working class, Labour, shifted towards the centre and accepted the fundamental tenants of Thatcher's reforms.  Without a party willing to go to bat for the region economically, Scotland began to drift towards acceptance of the SNP.  After this election Scottish Labour is a complete mess and Salmond has the opportunity to demand the devolving of extra fiscal powers to the Scottish Parliament, in addition to pushing for a referendum on independence.

A significant problem for English proponents of the United Kingdom, though, beyond all of the economic factors at play, of which there are many, is the apparent incapability to articulate a modern vision of British union.  Englishmen can't merely expect that arguments that Scotland can't 'go it alone' are somehow going to convince Scots, especially given how the Cameron governments spending cuts are likely to hit Scotland hard, working right into the SNP's arguments.  Few of the papers in the United Kingdom have even bothered to wonder about the broader issue of British identity and how the articulation of Scottish identity, amongst others, fits or doesn't fit into it.  This seems particularly jarring considering how significant the discussion of these issues have been in Canada.  Even the question raised by The Guardian as to whether it was a mistake to grant devolution to Scotland in the first seems ridiculously short-sighted.  Scottish devolution was originally widely advocated for by Scots since the late nineteenth century and ending Holyrood isn't about to fix any fundamental fault lines in British union.