Union’s long-term future put in peril

By defying history to pull off a spectacular election victory David Cameron may yet have set in train events that will soon consign the United Kingdom itself to the history books.

Deadlocked polls showing him on course to lead a shaky, minority government at best were swept away as Cameron became the first incumbent Tory prime minister to increase their MP tally since Margaret Thatcher in 1983, and their share of the popular vote since Anthony Eden in 1955.

Looking as surprised as anyone at his unexpected triumph Cameron declared on the steps of Downing Street that he would govern as a “one nation Tory” — this must have come as something as a surprise to Scottish listeners as he had indeed campaigned in the interests of one nation, but that nation was England.