Well, a few days ago David Cameron made a
prominent, important speech on the independence issue. He delivered it in the Olympic Park in East London and much of his speech was given over to politicising the 2012 London games; according to the Tories those games, rather than being a terribly wasteful period in light of the poverty that still grips so much of this island, were actually a fantastic show of Britishness and basically one big argument against independence. It's rather amusing that a number of Unionists in Scotland (e.g. ex First Minister Jack (now Lord) McConnell) are accusing the SNP of politicising the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow later this year. This debate is full of such hypocrisy.
But yeah the speech was in response to the little flurry of poll-successes touted in the media at the end of January. He, rather significantly, stated that there was "only 7 months to save the greatest country on earth" or something daft like that, as though we were at war with Nazi Germany again. Very emotive, strong language, and given how complacent his government has been over the last few years towards independence you could argue that this has spooked them. He even called for English people (and Welsh and Northern Irish) to phone up their Scottish brethren and tell them how much they want Scotland to stay. I've had a few phone calls over the weekend from concerned people in England, yes, but they only asked me if I was aware that I could be owed a lot of money through mis-sold PPI.
The speech has been laughed at across the board though, even in the Unionist media. It just didn't work. Alex Salmond basically called it a "speech from Mount Olympus" and calls have been renewed for Cameron to debate with Salmond, something Cameron outright refuses to do at all costs. Basically everything Cameron does now whether it's making impassioned appeals or
talking up his Scottish roots he just sounds weak. Like he's losing. People are starting to smell blood in the water now, which is pretty remarkable considering we haven't really made all that many significant gains. Just a few, but that's enough.
Similarly, the leader of the Unionist campaign in Scotland Alistair Darling has started to make pretty wild accusations that Mr. Salmond is "acting like a Head of State" whose minions are systematically intimidating businesspeople who would otherwise speak out against independence. He refuses to name any businessmen that have been affected, nor does he talk of any ongoing police investigation (something the situation would surely warrant), he just makes... assertions. He's starting to sound increasingly shrill and out of touch though. Maybe a bit like McCaine when he went down the various smear campaign routes in 2008.
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