Anthony Barnett (London, OK): This argument by Tim Luckhurst in the Times is a hare that is going to run: any referendum on whether Scotland should leave the Union impacts on everyone in the Union and therefore everyone in the UK should have a vote, that's self-determination for you! It's a "We can't divorce unless we both agree" argument. You used to find this approach it in religious courts that gave men the power the decide if their wives were divorced whatever the civil courts might say. Despite himself Luckhurst flashes the primitivism that lies within his apparent reasonableness:

The people of this nation state, who stood united against Nazism, are entitled to know what will be lost if Britain is obliterated.

Of course a UK wide referendum that included the question, should England have its own parliament so that we become a democratic federation, would be a different matter.