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| SNP leader and Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond |
AS a Scot, I have had few occasions to feel pride in my homeland. Oh, there was the time the national side scored against Brazil in the opening match of the 1998 Football World Cup. But it was short-lived; the boys in yellow won 2-1. And my hopes are raised every time Andy Murray lifts a tennis racquet at Wimbledon - only to be dashed in the later rounds.
But there is one morning I recall feeling a surge of national pride. It was September 12, 1997 - the day after the devolution referendum. I woke to news that people in Scotland had voted overwhelmingly in favour of a Scottish Parliament (74.3 per cent to be exact) with a considerable majority (63.5 per cent) also voting for tax-varying powers. In short, the Scots had not only voted for their own parliament, but one with teeth.
Eighteen years earlier, it had all been so different. The 1979 referendum on devolution was a washout that left a nasty taste in the Scottish palate. Although a slim majority (51.6 per cent) voted in favour, the then Labour government ruled that at least 40 per cent of the electorate had to be in favour for the result to hold. In a low turnout, only 32.9 per cent had actually crossed the "Yes" box.
Devolution was dead.
Two things brought it back to life:
Mrs Thatcher and 18 years of Tory rule. People living and working in Scotland felt totally disenfranchised under the UK electoral system. As long as England kept voting Tory, Scotland was destined to be ruled by a party it did not want. The final insult was when Thatcher introduced the Poll Tax into Scotland before England.
In the 1992 General Election, Scotland returned 11 Conservative MPs to Westminster, out of a total of 72. In the 1997 election, the Tories won no seats in Scotland.
You don't need to be a maths whiz to realise that democracy wasn't working.
Writing in The Press recently, political journalist Chris Moncrieff revealed his bafflement at Tony Blair offering the Scots a vote on devolution when he came to power in 1997. "Why?" he asks, when Blair had "always professed to be against the break-up of the United Kingdom".
What Chris forgets is that Labour was part of the push for devolution during the Tory years, through the likes of the broad-church Campaign For A Scottish Assembly.
In recent months, we've seen how grassroots efforts are leading to democratic reform in countries across North Africa, and now Burma.
Although Scotland was never ruled by a military junta, Scots felt like they were in chains, politically.
And just as we have seen in Tunisia, Egypt and now Burma, when enough people want change, it tends to happen.
So Blair, ever the populist, was appealing to a long-held ambition for Scots in offering devolution. He hoped satisfying the Scots' appetite for an assembly might diminish any lingering hunger for independence.
Onlookers may look at the current situation and think, like Chris, that Blair scored an own goal. Not only is the SNP running the Scottish Parliament, its leader, Alex Salmond, is First Minister, and is now sparring with David Cameron over when to hold a new referendum, this time on independence.
So is the break-up of Britain imminent? Probably not - no poll has ever shown that Scots prefer independence over devolution, even after 14 years of home rule.
Which is why Cameron wants the referendum held ASAP and limited to a simple Yes/No vote on independence. He thinks he can win.
Salmond, on the rails, wants more time, to build support, but is also considering introducing a "Devo Max" option on the ballot. This would increase the scope of Scotland's political autonomy but fall short of independence.
Polls suggest "Devo Max" is what the majority of Scots would prefer.
Both Cameron and Salmond need to heed the public mood and put the political aspirations of the Scots above their own partisan goals.
Democracy, after all, is something the Scots have fought long and hard for. They will not take kindly to the return of any political straitjacket.
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