This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

It feels like 2025 needs a specific name, a label. Perhaps, the Year of Samson. For in 2025, political pillars which have stood for generations are being torn down, just as Samson tore down the pillars of the temple in the bible story.

The post-war guarantee of American security for Europe was collapsed by Donald Trump. China now stands face-to-face with the US as a global super-power. In Germany, the fire-wall between the far-right and the electorate has been breeched. Free trade is obliterated.

Now, the Labour and Tory duopoly on British power has shuddered and given way as Reform emerges as the main opposition to Keir Starmer in the wake of the English elections.

Indeed, the UK has gone from a two-party state to a multi-party state, with the Greens and LibDems harrying Tories and Labour from left and right. Politically, everything is in flux.

The rise of Reform’s virulent form of English nationalism, however, endangers one political pillar more than all others: the union.

It has always been a challenge for traditional Scottish unionists to understand a key truth about the union: what happens in England has more bearing on its safety and security than what happens in Scotland.

When Westminster goes haywire, support for independence booms. When Westminster remains relatively calm and functioning, support for independence abates.........

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