A View from the Bridge

 Two events collided today. Small beer in the general travails of this world, but notable. For me.
Firstly, someone that toured with me last year sent me a lovely message expressing a wish to do another bespoke trip. Not battlefields this time - perhaps Wales.
I zipped off a reply, saying I'd love to do it (of course), and readied myself for the day's BIG event - driving our youngest daughter up to start university at Cardiff.
As I said, small beer.
We drove along the M4, and then across the Severn Bridge, with the morning mist adding to the sense of occasion. A thought struck me, as the talking heads gabbled on about events in Scotland. How would I feel, as a dyed in the wool (but expatriate) Welshman, if I had to produce a passport at this point in our journey?
It seems to me that as a nation, as a so called United Kingdom, that our horizons are shrinking. Just when we should be showing the world what a liberal, open community looks like, we are allowing our ancient boundaries to be resurrected. Drawbridges are being pulled up.
Don't get me wrong - I can't blame the Scots for wanting to strike out alone, and if they vote Yes tomorrow I will wish them well. I have always admired them as people, and will continue to do so. What's left of our United (?) Kingdom will be all the poorer for their exit. Indeed, if I was in their shoes tomorrow, I'd be sorely tempted to vote for independence too. The negative line taken by so many politicians has been a disastrous indicator of just how out of touch this government is with anyone who doesn't read the Daily Mail. In many ways, Cameron is reaping what he has sown. He has allowed the nation's politics to be hijacked by the right wing agenda, oblivious to the fact that the left leaning Scots were going to, in effect, have an earlier referendum on his government.
More fundamentally, we are, as a nation, less tolerant. Immigrants, the EU, benefit "scroungers" - it has become mainstream politics to attack them, to blame them for our perceived ills.
Little wonder that the Scots have picked up the tune, and decided that they too, could do better by themselves. Only in recent days have we started to hear the positive message about the UK, but it will be ironic in the extreme to hear Tories and UKIP talk about the virtues of splendid isolation when membership of the EU is on the table. Duplicitously, they will focus on the dangers of foreigners running their country, when they have been espousing exactly the opposite in the past few weeks.
I know a few Scots, and many of them are bemused to find themselves in this position. And I know they are partial to a beer or two. So let's postpone the vote and sort the whole thing out over a drink at my favourite pub - the Ty Coch in Nefyn, North Wales. Neutral ground, Place is run by English folk, but, you know, they're alright...