Mr Cameron says that the Tories are at last ready for the modern world. They care about public services, they want to rebuild the broken society. What a waste of their time to have to dispute the powers and borders and international alliances of two (or three, or four) new nations.
His approach, therefore, is to try to spread his party's scope throughout the Union. That is what his latest effort to reunite the Tories with the moderate Ulster Unionists as a "new force" is about - building modern politics which is truly national rather than pettily nationalistic.
But where he is missing a trick, surely, is in his attitude to that referendum on independence. The Cameron position so far is that it would be irresponsible to provoke such a vote. Would it?
Independence is the big question behind current Scottish politics. If unionists avoid asking it, they look like what the Scots call "fearties", frightened of the answer. Polls suggest they should not be. If they are bold enough to refuse Mr Salmond's timetable, the answer is much more likely to be the one they want.
Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph.
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