How did it come to this?

“WHAT’S ‘better together’ about here?” asks David Linden, a 24-year-old activist for the Scottish National Party (SNP), gesturing to a turd-strewn street of rundown public housing in Shettleston, in the East End of Glasgow. Mr Linden, who is campaigning for Scotland to choose independence at the referendum on September 18th, raises a fair question. Shettleston is one of Britain’s poorest, idlest and sickest places; at 64, male life expectancy is 15 years below the national average and falling. Why wouldn’t the ailing locals disdain the unionist Better Together campaign for the shimmering Utopia of the Yes Scotland separatists?

Out door-knocking one recent evening, Mr Linden and his team of activists gave them every encouragement. The sun was high, sparkling on Glasgow’s mouldering tower-blocks and the distant green hills beyond the Clyde, and so were their spirits. They were young—only one was older than 25—articulate and bursting with arguments for Scotland to go solo. It would be richer, fairer and more responsive to Shettleston’s needs, they claimed, on jobs, health care, you name it.