The SNP have managed to stir up a nationalistic fervour. We want what is ours. We want to do it alone. Our problems are everyone else's fault.
It is very easy to feel like that. Certainly if the yes vote happens - it is bound to fuel the concept of England and I am sure Wales and possibly N Ireland.
The English will be forced to think about what is theirs. It will not be nice. It will become a nasty divorce - horrible small minded argument about who gets what.
One base argument. The Scots want to be a stand alone nation - but they want the Bank of England to be their lender of last resort in a currency union going forward. Salmond argues if they don't get it they will not accept a split of national debt liability. Wonderful. Years of arguement and bitterness.
SNP want rid of Trident from Faslane - but also want to join NATO - and therefore hide behind the French and UK and US nuclear deterrent. How do the Scots expect the rest of the UK to feel about that?
A base feeling - let the Scots go off on their own - but really hope they fail. Definitely lets not make it easy for them. Lets look after ourselves first. Lets stop buying Scottish goods. They caused the divorce - let them suffer as a result. I am sure this type of nationalistic negativity on both sides will be all pervading and sour once it gets a grip.
Set against nationalism is the great European Union project. It's founders recognised the downsides of nationalism. History has shown that nationalism was the root of two terrible world wars and therefore better to blur the edges and work ever closer together in a federal union.
There is much about the EU I do not like - the shocking gravy train bureaucracy. The EU could be more democratic. I see unfettered economic migration as a massive problem - but there is no malice towards other EU countries. We are working together in a positive way and nationalistic excesses are curbed.
So - it is easy for the heart to be stirred by nationalistic fervour - but it can easily lead to the wrong type of thinking and emotion. It can be small minded and destructive.
It is hard to love the EU - but on the whole it is a force for peace and working together.
If the Scots vote yes - the English quite understandably will become much more nationalistic too. A rocky road ahead and years of negativity and division.
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