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David Cameron’s safety-first visit unleashes emotion but little contact

David Cameron during his visit to Scottish Widows offices in Edinburgh.
David Cameron during his visit to Scottish Widows offices in Edinburgh.

From the outside you wouldn’t have known the man in charge of the country was in town.

Sure, there were a couple of TV cameras and a smattering of journalists but nothing that really caught your attention.

This was David Cameron’s big pitch to save the Union. Safely tucked away inside Scottish Widows’ Morrison Street building in Edinburgh, the Prime Minister was not in the mood to talk to punters on the street or for them to know where he was.

Granted, the Conservative leader was on “chat with Dave” form as he took questions from workers at the pensions and investment company.

And to be fair, he answered them well. This was the emotional argument for the Union turned up to 11.

He does care about this vote he feels really strongly about it in fact. He even almost swore. In uttering “effing Tories” he truly did try to embrace the Scottish psyche.

There’s no doubt that he genuinely would be “heartbroken” if there was a Yes vote. I believe him when he says he cares “far more about my country than I do about my party”.

It’s just that, well, it’s a difficult sell from him.

As one observer said to me: “If David Cameron came to Scotland and said ‘don’t stick forks in plug sockets’ a swathe of the population would rush to their cutlery drawers.”

It is doubly difficult when you make your big pitch, set off your “love bomb” as it were, in the office of a financial giant.

The kind of place where, as the Prime Minister admitted, the grilling is “pretty gentle” and, interestingly, there were no questions allowed from journalists.

A quick hunt for people outside to chat about the Conservative leader’s visit proved tough.

It was the woman running the coffee stall opposite the venue who provided the most telling insight.

“It would be nice if he would talk to real people on the street,” she said. “That would be a better PR stunt.”

Mr Cameron provided warm words. He provided genuine words.

His problem is making large parts of Scotland listen to them.