Alas, there are a couple of reasons sharply to distrust Mr Salmond's vision of the Scots and English shaking hands over the corpse of Great Britain.
An increase in tuition fees is thought to be behind the slump in applications from Scots students to English institutions.
One fashionable view is that Britain was never more than a contingent political construction a product of the specific historical circumstances of imperial conquest by the English of Wales and Ireland, and the bargain that the Scots did with the English in the Act of Union of 1707.
We don't want English vs Scots, we mustn't start playing one off against another.
Scots fought on the English side, while Welsh archers and Irish footsoldiers were important to the English.
Appalachia for example, was largely populated by what you Americans call the Scotch Irish, and we English call Scots Presbyterians.
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The English, Scots, Welsh, Australians, Americans, Irish and South Africans all have their own distinct cultures despite sharing a language.
This lingering anxiety in the British body politic reached its apotheosis in the rather more determined rebellion of 1745, led by Charles Edward, which culminated in the Battle of Culloden, where Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highland army was no match for the British both English and Scots redcoats.
The first is that although the Welsh language flourishes (arguably because Welsh-medium schools offer a way for richer parents to enjoy academic selection), the region remains close to England, sharing, for example, the English press. (The Scots have their own newspapers.) And plenty of English newcomers are learning Welsh, drawn by those same good schools.
In 1424, the English defeated the Scots and French at the Battle of Verneuil during the Hundred Years' War.
In different ways, the English, the Scots, the Welsh and the British as a whole stand to benefit from devolution.
After the 15th century, Scots diverged sharply from northern English dialect.
These benefits for the Scots, the Welsh and the English will add up to a general benefit for Britain as a whole.
And would lower taxes attract businesses and people across borders, as Scots might hope, and the English might fear, at least until they start cutting in reaction?
Are Scots really more public-spirited than the English, and if so are they prepared to pay higher taxes?
Margaret Thatcher was proudly, quintessentially English at a time when the Scots were rediscovering and reasserting their sense of Scottish identity.
Academics are divided about the status of language which is based on English with influences from Irish, Scots Gaelic and Lowland Scots.
The resulting sense of being short-changed corresponds to an ancient English stereotype about tight-fisted Scots, one of the few prejudices that is still broadly permissible.
Scots seem to like public spending more than the English do, but 3p in the pound will hardly pay for their ambitions.
The Scots, fumes Charles Jones, a professor of English language at Edinburgh University, have been speaking English for just as long as those south of the border.
To guard against that, the Scots would probably try to charge student fees to the English.
Nobody says that the English must threaten to secede, as the Scots did before they got their Parliament.
This argues that Scots is the most flourishing example of a variety of English, which can be traced back to Northumbria (just south of the Scottish border) and which was commonly spoken from Yorkshire northwards by the 15th century.
Unlike the English (who tend to think that being English and British are the same thing), the Scots are quite capable of distinguishing between both identities, and using one or the other when it suits them.
So, all we have to do is look at whether the English health care system gets worse compared to the Welsh or Scots one or better.
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If, as many Scots believe, their education system is markedly superior to that of the English, why are so many Scottish children leaving school without qualifications?
The Scots may prefer to be Scottish, Englanders may be warming to the idea of being English, but I suspect that brand Britain will bounce back as voters consider the uncertain economic and diplomatic consequences of breaking apart in a scary financial climate.
Worse, the Scots can afford these perks in part because they receive more public funding per head than the English.
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