I am beginning to feel sorry for Gordon Brown.  In the unlikely event that he is crowned Prime Minister, he is not going continue in that Office for very long.

Not only do one in four Labour voters want the party to lose the next election but Labour’s core support in Scotland seem determined to present themselves as so anti-English that those of us south of the border cannot help but notice.  This can only have the effect of highlighting the West Lothian question, remarked upon in The Sunday Times today by Michael Portillo.  This is particularly irksome for Mr Brown given the Government has been at great pains to fudge the issue.

The risk for Labour is that the English are going to find it increasingly hard to swallow being ruled by a Government in which many of the major players will have been elected by Scottish voters.  Amongst those English supporters of Labour who have little in common with the unreconstructed socialist Scottish Labour Party and little sympathy for their ways, there will be a growing disinclination to turn out to vote. Even worse for Labour, these erstwhile supporters in England might transfer their allegiance to other parties, turning England even bluer.  There is little Mr Brown can do.  The political tide currently favours the Conservatives.  Following the next General Election, Labour is going to have to rely even more heavily upon its Scottish MPs.

Following the repeated failings of its football team, England-hating is becoming the national sport of Scotland.  In The Times yesterday, a writer mused whether the Scots would now cheer on England against Sweden, given that if their adopted team Trinidad and Tobago then defeat Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago would progress through to the next round of the World Cup.  I think not.  The enmity appears to run too deep.