Mrs May’s hymn to unity was heartfelt and robust

THE only thing missing was the Queen barrelling out of a helicopter with Daniel Craig. Theresa May’s speech to the Scottish Tory conference was straight out of Danny Boyle’s London 2012 spectacular – Britain as a bold, bright, outwardlooking nation.

And like Boyle’s Olympic-opening paean to all that is good about the UK, the Prime Minister’s address in Glasgow was an altogether sunnier take on the Union than Scots are used to.

Mrs May told delegates: ‘Together we form the world’s greatest family of nations but the real story of our Union is not to be found in treaties or Acts of Parliament. It is written in our collective achievements, both at home and in the world.’ The hall loved it. Conservative conferences are a tale of two Tories. The mini-Mogg – suit from John Lewis, politics from John Redwood – and the No-Nonsense Auntie: a doughty, reliable type who knocks the doors, bakes the scones and handbags Central Office when it gets too carried away with itself

The libertarian mini-Moggs set aside their iffiness about collectivism to rah-rah the Prime Minister’s words while the Aunties, terribly proud to be British but one doesn’t go on about it, thundered in applause.

It’s no wonder they lapped it up. This was a rare treat for Scottish Unionists. Panegyrics to our four-nation partnership are hard to come by north of the Border, where supporters of the UK prefer to keep quiet for an easy life.

The Nationalists have filled that void with lurid tales of oppression and colonial imposition. The SNP thinks the Union is a family too; they just think it’s the Mansons.

If the speech was proudly Unionist, it wasn’t terribly Tory. ‘Solidarity is the essence of our United Kingdom,’ Mrs May declared to sustained clapping.

‘The poorest and the most vulnerable in our society’ depend on the wealth redistribution that the Union allows.

Somehow, Theresa May got 500 Tories out of bed on a Friday morning to cheer for socialism.

Mrs May’s hymn to unity was heartfelt, something her predecessor tried to pull off but never could.

David Cameron’s speeches in 2014 were 10 per cent emotion and 90 per cent economics; Mrs May flips that around. Transactional Unionism has been replaced by something more heartfelt. Stay with us, Scotland – not for the subsidies but because we belong together. ‘It is a union of people, affections and loyalties.’

SHE underscored the inventions and discoveries that had come about by Britons working together, such as the steam engine and penicillin. Tellingly, these are two innovations frequently hailed as ‘Scottish’ by the SNP, their tribalism too rigid to concede even co-operation.

The most recent example of this was JK Rowling, the Prime Minister added: ‘The Harry Potter books, which have sold over 500million copies, were begun in a café in Edinburgh by an author from Gloucestershire.’

A forceful point crackled under her words: Scotland belongs to all of us; the SNP doesn’t get to decide who’s Scottish and who’s not.

Mrs May’s speech was mostly boilerplate but parse a word here and a clause there and you have the makings of a fresh approach to devolution. Mr Cameron’s respect agenda – which involved him being respectful to the SNP and them respectfully telling him to b **** r off – has been replaced by a mutual respect agenda.

Downing Street would seek to work with the devolved administration but the good of the Union, not appeasement of the Nationalists, would be the priority.

The Prime Minister was relaxed, even allowing herself the odd smile. She looks less apprehensive when speaking in Scotland than her old boss did; her shoulders are less hunched, her words less halted by fear of saying the wrong thing.

Every few months, Mr Cameron would come north to deliver a ‘defence’ of the Union and every time it would fall flat. By seeking to defend the United Kingdom, he accepted that it was on trial. Mrs May celebrated our shared values and prosecuted a strong case against separatism.

She gets what Mr Cameron seemed not to: Scotland is her country too, and she needn’t be afraid to talk about it.