Three weeks after Scotland’s independence referendum, Prof Chris Whatley, Scottish historian and author of the acclaimed The Scots and the Union: Then and Now (2014), reflected upon the campaign for independence, the result, and the future for Scotland, either within or outside the UK. Chris charted the emergence of the movement for Scottish independence and identified the successes and failings of the Yes and Better Together campaigns.

He discussed the result in the context of the long history of the British union state, and argued that the Union, as envisaged in 1707, and as it had developed over the subsequent three centuries and more, is no longer fit for purpose. But is Britain broken? Are we now closer to the situation Scotland and England were in before 1707 but after the union of the crowns in 1603? Or is this arrangement too – with Scotland and England sharing a single monarch – outdated and under threat? What of Scotland’s relationship with England – and the rest of the UK – in future?