During a trip south of the border last weekend, I was bemused by the continuing interest in Scotland. A year ago, even apolitical friends and relatives were aware we were undergoing potential upheaval here, but I had expected the curiosity to end with the defeat of the separatists.
But over and over again I was asked the same question: is Scotland going to have a second referendum?
Those who had fought to keep Britain united believed their efforts would result in some kind of closure, at least for a generation. Even the then nationalist leader Alex Salmond had promised the referendum would represent a cut-off point.
However, the nationalists refused to respect Scottish opinion which conclusively backed the Union and have been campaigning ever since for a second chance.
We have had the likes of Jim Sillars, a former SNP deputy leader, calling for a unilateral declaration of independence, and the “45%”, the rump of Yes supporters who won’t go away.
From Tommy Sheridan annoying even those on his own side with his Hope over Fear rallies, to Salmond trying to salvage his reputation, the secessionist movement is convinced it has the momentum still.
Caution
Given the clamour among the thousands of new members within her party, Nicola Sturgeon has found it hard to follow her own instincts, which err on the side of caution.
As recently as the general election she was ruling out a second referendum but in the past fortnight she has capitulated to the pressure and said the SNP’s 2016 manifesto would spell out the “triggers” for another ballot.
The No camp’s response to the nationalists’ duplicity should be uniform and above party politics. That approach brought victory last year.
But now it appears we have a defector in the ranks: the leader of Scottish Labour.
Kezia Dugdale, the bright young hope of her party, has decided it is OK for Labour to be pro-independence, and if there is another referendum, Labour MSPs and MPs will be free to campaign alongside the nationalists.
This is in stark contrast to the views of her party elders Alistair Darling, who led Better Together, Gordon Brown, and Jim Murphy, her immediate predecessor, to mention just three and against the long-standing Unionist position of Labour.
She has caused shockwaves in her party, with even its most flexible spokesmen Henry McLeish, for example suggesting she should have debated the issue before and not after her announcement. From now on it will be impossible for Labour to argue the unionist case with any conviction.
Desperation
So why did she do it? She is desperate.
Around one in three Labour voters backed independence last September and the party subsequently suffered near annihilation in the May general election.
It lost all but one of its 41 MPs to the SNP and, if the polls are accurate, looks set to lose many MSPs in the Holyrood battle next May.
Dugdale, who rose to prominence as part of the Better Together campaign that saw Tories working beside Labour colleagues, has opted to put her party first. She said she wants anyone who voted Yes to Scotland leaving the UK last year to feel they have “a home” in the Labour Party.
It is a last ditch ploy to save her party from further humiliation at the hands of the nationalists but it is bound to backfire.
Many of those Labour supporters who switched sides were drawn by the Yes camp’s radicalism. Maybe it reminded them of old Labour, in the days of Red Flags and Clause Four, the original people’s party.
How can Dugdale expect to lure this constituency back unless she embraces the politics of her new leader at Westminster?
She might have belatedly made friendly overtures to Jeremy Corbyn but she is firmly of the New Labour persuasion and that is unlikely to change.
Why would the new nationalists return to a stricken Labour Party when they have all they want power included in the SNP? By reaching out to Yes voters, Dugdale succeeds only in alienating the loyal unionists who have stood by the party out of principle.
They will be horrified to see the sacrifices they made in the referendum courting unpopularity by working with Conservatives come to nothing as their party casually abandons a core belief.
With Labour so unclear where it stands on the United Kingdom, voters who have no partisan affiliations but who are deep down unionists will seek other options.
Either the Tories, revitalised in Scotland under Ruth Davidson, or the Lib Dems heading, according to their former leader Nick Clegg, for a revival will benefit.
Britain was saved last year because it was seen to be bigger than any single party. Dugdale has reversed that sentiment, at Britain’s cost.