What happens to being British now?
Whatever happens on Friday, independence or more devolution to Scotland or the status quo, it will spark debates about Northern Ireland, Wales, the English regions and our major cities.
Proportional representation and an elected House of Lords will be back in the air. Our relationship with Europe will continue to divide. The debates will be messy and fraught. Vested interests will resist and frustrate but it will be exciting.
A chance to break the logjam of mistrust, apathy and tribalism that defines British politics right now.
All of that happens whether yes or no, now the politicians have promised so much change. But a yes vote also means confronting the emotional and complex area of identity. Not just the Scots, but all of us.
A yes means Britain ceases to exist, right? I won’t be British anymore, I’ll just be English. Yes? That’s the identity crisis so many people south of the border have been wrestling with as we watch to see how the Scots vote.
As the son of immigrants I was brought up to be British.
Englishness meant nothing to me. “British” signified everything from justice and democracy to red double-decker buses and afternoon tea. As Indians my parents and their friends never talked of the English Raj.
It was the British who colonised India and many of them were Scots. In fact access to India for Scotland’s wealthy merchants was one of the benefits of 1707. My Dad used to speak to me about British values and British democracy and the British empire.
Then as an 18-year-old leaving home, Scotland was the place of my first job, my first flat, my first car and a few other young experiences we don’t need to go into here. I have loved the country ever since and visit every year.
My children have been there many times, even though they’ve never visited Lancashire where I grew up.
In truth I have always secretly felt Scotland was a part of my identity too: so in some ways I feel more Scottish than English! How absurd. How British!
Watching Scotland decide has been gripping and exciting, while my own identity is being challenged as much as anyone there. But in these last few days of the campaign I have started to reach some new personal conclusions.
My identity has changed enormously as I’ve grown older. Growing up in the north west of England my loyalty was there, and to Liverpool where I was born.
When I lived in Glasgow I made an effort to understand the politics, the history and the customs. The city was vibrant but I understood the disconnect many Scots felt towards the metropolitan elite in Westminster.
I took on a bit of what you might call “honorary Scottish” identity too. But for the last 22 years I’ve lived in London. I adore the place – never more than when I touch down at Heathrow from some foreign trip for Channel 4 News.
I believe it is the best capital city in the world. I’ve even started thinking of myself as a Londoner. And that isn’t an identity I ever thought I would take on.
Lancashire, Liverpool, Scotland and London all wrapped up in Britain as a second generation immigrant from India. That’s complicated enough. And for the last few years I’ve even been embracing the idea of England.
It is the entity my kids best understand. They live in England. They go on holiday to Scotland. Britain and the United Kingdom are complex things to explain to little ones, so I tended not to bother. And because the kids talk about living in England, these days so do I.
They are half Australian so I didn’t want to add another layer of complication. But when I’m discussing the world with my Aussie relatives there’s probably a bit of European identity in there too.
Identity changes, then. That much has become obvious to me.
I don’t drop what I had, but I do add to it. And the thing that has struck me in the last couple of days is that nobody, no political separation, can really take away the sense of being British in me.
If Scotland votes yes and becomes independent, Britain will still mean something geographically, it will still mean something historically and if there is a currency union it will mean something economically too.
So no matter how many times you hear the media talking about the end, the breakup, the smashing of Britain the idea, the identity will remain for those of us who felt it in the first place.
I may in fact be English and a UK citizen but I will still be British, for as long as I can remember what that was. My children? Perhaps not. But I’m happy to leave identity to be something they work out for themselves.
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