Will the English revive our ailing campaign for independence?

QUESTIONS of identity are among the most complex to answer. In Scotland, we have decades of experience in developing that hybrid, tangled state of mind which is an intrinsic part of being both Scottish and British.

For years, nationalists have wrestled with the conundrum of how to move a population which thrives on Scottish victories at Twickenham and Wembley to a position where that identity finds its voice in political nationalism. Devolution was undoubtedly an attempt to answer that question and to provide a focal point for that restlessness.

But the mantra that devolution was a "process not an event" was always something of a necessary cop-out - it allowed nationalists to dream of moving beyond the confines of devolution on the one hand, and unionists to hold to the view that there would be no desire to add to the devolved Parliament’s powers on the other. The flaw was that rather than deciding on the nation’s future and then building institutions around that resolution, we chose to avoid the question and build a "process" of devolution which we hoped would answer the question for us. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t happen and the conflict of identity has simply been given a more public forum.

Post devolution, Scottish identity has strengthened and British identity weakened. By contrast, the independence movement has stalled, yet the majority want Scotland to have more power. In other words, anyone who hoped that devolution would settle questions of Scottish identity and Scottish self-government will now realise that the simplicity of the pre-Holyrood democratic deficit has been replaced by an altogether more difficult and convoluted series of issues.

Step forward that most unlikely of solutions - England.

For just as the steam appears to be going out of the Scottish constitutional debate, questions of English and British identity have taken centre stage in the Westminster general election.

Last week, Gordon Brown attempted to define "Britishness". His tactic was obvious - reassure Middle England that a Scot in 10 was not something to be feared while using the issue to set out his vision for the future. It backfired for two reasons. First, the fact that he felt the need to make this case simply reinforced that England is no longer comfortable with Scots and Scotland. Secondly, and more depressingly, Brown had nothing to say. He was clear that in wartime, Britain had been a good thing and we had all pulled together to defeat Hitler. More than that, he offered little more than the irrefutable truth that it was better "to move forward and not backwards". Mr Brown set himself up as the man to define Britishness, then could not deliver.

Then we had former Tory chancellor Norman Lamont complaining that on his annual visit north he found it a "strange land" where he was not as warmly welcomed as before. It would be uncharitable to suggest other reasons why that might be, but maybe Mr Lamont is right, and the disparity between Scotland and England is growing.

Add to that the Jeremy Paxman jibes at the "Scottish Raj" running the country, and we have confirmation that it is England more than Scotland which is having the identity crisis. The consequence of that has been to create an extremely odd election campaign in Scotland, where the principal issue has been concepts of Britishness which have decreasing relevance to Scots voters.

MORE fundamentally, it appears to suggest that the next phase of constitutional realignment will not be as a result of a groundswell in Scottish public opinion demanding independence but rather a reaction from England to the disintegration of Britishness and the re-emergence of Englishness. That can be a positive thing for England - a country which deserves more than the caricature of outdated concepts of empire or bulldog spirit - and it will be positive for Scotland too.

These emerging identities are a natural consequence of the demand for change which inspired devolution. They are not to be condemned or feared. As England learns to be England once again, Scotland will need to accelerate the process of maturing into the country we want to be.

It may be a source of frustration that the emergence of Scotland in the 21st century as a more independent, more confident, outward-looking, prosperous nation is the result of an English identity crisis, but in its own way, that would be a very Scottish solution to a Scottish problem.