I think I tell the man who wrote the Spectator article part of the why. It's because everyone north of the Watford gap knows that when politicians talk about Britain they mean England, and when politicians talk about England they mean London and the home counties. So for politicians to suddenly come out and pretend they're defending something they've spent years ignoring, it sounds a bit daft.

Salmond may be in striking distance of victory, but what victory will he achieve? The SNP campaign is full of illogical assertions, the more recent ones being that Scotland will still be able to charge high tertiary level fees to students from the rUK despite that breaking EU rules, and that the rUK will still have to build warships in Scotland - another EU rule breaker.

Personally, I think he is going to be called up on these kinds of ridiculous statements closer to the vote, and there is going to be enough indications of what the EU thinks about them to affect swing voters.