My partner voted no in the independence referendum, like many on the left who could not bear to be aligned with nationalism of any kind. If, or rather when, a second independence referendum comes around she says she would now vote yes. There will be many more like her who, through gritted teeth and perhaps even horror, would make the previously unimaginable switch. Even JK Rowling, one of Scotland’s most high-profile unionists, has noted the inevitability of it all: “Scotland will seek independence now,” she tweeted in the hours after the EU referendum result. “Cameron’s legacy will be breaking up two unions. Neither needed to happen.”
However uncomfortable it is to respond to one deep and painful fracture by willing another, this is where we are now. As for me, I remain a Londoner, English, British, Indian and a European who has lived in Scotland for most of my adult life. And right now I’m not only proud to be here. I’m relieved.
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