Speaking in this context of the 1707 Treaty may seem anachronistic to an Englishman, for it flies in the face of the common English assumption that the UK is a Greater England. It does not seem anachronistic to a Scot, whether unionist or nationalist. Arguments about the 1707 Treaty and its implications are frequently rehearsed in the letters column of newspapers like the Scotsman and the Herald (formerly the Glasgow Herald). They are not all written by separatists (as the nationalists don't like to be called). The terms of the Treaty have frequently, as Kidd shows, been breached. It is perhaps inevitable that this should have happened over the centuries. Nevertheless, the Treaty is the basis of the existence of the United Kingdom, for it created something that did not exist before. Given that in certain respects the letter of the Treaty may no longer be adhered to, it is all the more important that its spirit be observed. And that spirit requires the government of the United Kingdom to treat England and Scotland as partners, rather than seeing the one as a dependent of the other. 

In a sense, devolution has eased Cameron's position by securing Scottish autonomy over a range of matters. Scotland will be left to choose its own approach to the devolved areas of government. He will not be tempted to impose Westminster policies on, for example, the Scottish Health Service and Scottish schools and universities, for he has no legitimate power to do so. Yet it will require great tact and understanding if he is to establish a satisfactory way of living with a nationalist administration in Edinburgh, and not only because it may be, and sometimes will be, in the SNP's interest to provoke disagreement and conflict with London. At the same time, he will be required by the demands of his own supporters to sooth ruffled English susceptibilities and correct some of the Scottish bias inherent in the terms of the present devolution settlement. 

The condition of the Union is fragile, though perhaps less so than if the demand for devolution had been refused. Yet, though an occasional opinion poll taken at moments of Scottish indignation or euphoria has indicated a majority for independence, the consensus of polls over a number of years shows support for the break-up of the Union running at around 30 per cent. There is still a lot of Kidd's "banal unionism" around. Cross-border ties of family and friendship and of business remain strong. The near-collapse of the Scottish banks RBS and HBOS not only dented Scottish self-confidence, it also demonstrated the resources of the British state, and, perhaps still more significantly, it showed how intertwined the economies either side of the old Border are, for both banks have a larger presence in England than in Scotland and their collapse would have damaged the City of London as much as Edinburgh. Awareness in Scotland of the ties that bind the two countries together runs so deep that the SNP leader, Alex Salmond, proclaiming himself "the greatest Anglophile in Scotland", loses no opportunity to insist that what he calls the "Social Union" would survive the ending of political union, and might even be strengthened by it.