On a train trip south over the weekend I noticed a new road sign on the M8 (during that part of the rail journey that, inconveniently, involved a coach). The sign warned motorists of the reduction in the drink-driving limit, due to come into effect in Scotland on December 5, that is, on Friday.
The move, to cut the amount of alcohol allowed in the blood from 80mg to 50mg, brings Scotland into line with much of Europe, but not with our nearest neighbours, who have so far resisted the change.
Once in England, I encountered further evidence of our differences when one shop assistant balked at my Scottish tenner and another laughed at my attempt to pay for a plastic bag, as we now do in Scotland.
These are small things that set us apart and, certainly where drink driving is concerned, show Scotland leading the way. Since devolution, and before, Scottish distinctiveness has often been something to cherish, from the days of irregular marriages at Gretna Green, to the early ordination of women by the Church of Scotland.
But what increasingly divides Scotland from England is neither tradition nor culture, but the state of our public services. And after 15 years of a Scottish parliament and seven years of a nationalist government, these are in poor shape.
Despite record levels of public spending, health provision in Scotland is among the worst in Europe, according to a survey by the think tank Think Scotland. More is spent on health per capita here than in England, yet mortality rates that are responsive to health care are worse, a study by the Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust found.
The NHS in Scotland has failed to meet accident and emergency waiting time targets and the BMA and Royal College of Nursing have both warned that they are under strain. A few days ago a friend told me that her husband had to wait 25 minutes for an ambulance after suffering a heart attack. A paramedic on a scooter arrived with a small cylinder of oxygen (that quickly ran out) so this incident will be recorded as a target met, but even when a life is at stake our emergency services cannot cope.
In his autumn statement today, George Osborne is announcing an extra £2 billion for health south of the border and the SNP has been urged by Opposition politicians to use its share of this some £200 million as a result of the Barnett Formula on tackling the crisis in Scotland’s NHS.
Scotland’s education system which, like health, is completely in the hands of Holyrood not Westminster, has not improved at the same pace as England’s. The Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter wrote in a Sunday newspaper that education here should be run independently of politicians and aligned more to job prospects.
“For too long we’ve applied sticking plasters when what was needed was surgery, a new way of thinking about intractable problems,” he said.
New ways of thinking have been deployed in England, particularly in education, but although in Scotland we have had the reins and resources to introduce reform, our current political leadership has been terminally sidetracked by constitutional upheaval.
Scotland is soon to become more distinct from England if the Smith Commission recommendations, published last week, are made law; we will have separate income tax rates, including a higher top rate of 50% for the biggest earners, advocated by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
Business leaders fear that this will discourage enterprise and deter investment. Wealth creators, and their money, will head south and Scotland will look even more removed from the rest of Britain.
Small farmers are set to be clobbered, too, under land proposals. As Courier reader James Cormie put it on Monday, we will become the St Kilda of Europe.
If we must distinguish Scotland from England we should strive to have better hospitals and schools, not worse, longer not shorter life expectancy, more business start-ups, more efficient transport links services of which we are proud, instead of ashamed.
We voted not to be a separate nation but we are becoming one regardless, and not in a good way.