Leaving the EU is straining the union with Scotland

GORDON BROWN is doing a much better job of being an elder statesman than he did of being prime minister. A man who was seen as a failure in office has transmogrified into a widely respected figure. In April he delivered an electrifying speech on the shame of anti-Semitism in his Labour Party. This week he was at it again. He warned that “the union is today more at risk than at any time in 300 years—and more in danger than when we had to fight for it in 2014 during a bitter Scottish referendum.” He added that there was more at stake than just the unity and integrity of a country. Also on the line is a collection of values—“tolerance, respect for diversity, being outward-looking”—which are embodied in the United Kingdom and now threatened by various competing, narrow nationalisms. He is right on all counts.

England and Scotland have been drifting apart for decades. Scotland increasingly feels like a different country rather than just a distinctive part of a multinational kingdom. It has its own parliament, its own ruling party, its own tax rates, its own welfare arrangements (Scottish students go to university free of charge) and, if things go according to plan, will soon have its own Scottish National Investment Bank. The Scots wake up every morning to curse different politicians and chew over different political scandals. The country is currently obsessed by a scandal that has got little traction in the south but could shake the ruling Scottish National Party to its foundations: Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister in 2007-14, is awaiting trial on multiple charges of sexual assault and two of attempted rape.