Belling the cat

The possibilities are opening up.  The Sunday Times resorts to fanciful conjecture:

David Cameron, if he has 272 seats or thereabouts, could say on the morning after the election that the Scottish people have spoken, that he has heard what they say, and that the Queen’s speech will accordingly contain a proposal to bring forward a bill for Scottish independence, subject once again to a referendum.

Assuming the currency issue can be resolved beforehand — perhaps by Scottish representation within the Bank of England — and Scotland is allowed to keep sterling, who is to say that the next referendum might not yield a yes?

Labour could never countenance this. The Conservatives could. And the SNP, not short on low cunning, must surely know it. Perhaps this is what lay behind Nicola Sturgeon’s alleged remark to the French ambassador that she would prefer to deal with a Cameron government rather than a Miliband one.

Fantasy politics?  Perhaps.  But surely not outwith the bounds of possibility ...