Theresa May tries to bully indyref voters

The ‘Vote Yes’ movement may well have garnered more supporters this week after Theresa May highlighted the potential risk to Scotland’s national security as a reason for Scots to vote no.

During the home secretary’s visit to Edinburgh, she said Scotland would face greater security threats in the event of independence, adding that the UK would deny Scotland access to intelligence systems such as MI5.

The warning, which followed on the heels of the publication of the most recent UK government analysis on the implications of independence by the Home Office, was rejected by many Scots who don’t see independence as synonymous with a diminished capacity to tackle crime.

Rather than alarm Scots, this sort of scaremongering is likely to serve as a sore point since many people both sides of the border feel that in the event of independence, security cooperation would be in everyone’s interests.

The briefing came after the announcement of the Scottish government’s opposition to May’s Immigration Bill, a nasty piece of proposed legislation which, if implemented, would see the rights of appeal of family migrants severely curtailed.