Scotland's most pro-British historian has performed a remarkable about-face and declared his support for Scottish independence.Michael Fry, a former Scottish candidate for the Conservative and Unionist Party, says the break-up of Britain is essential if Scotland is to thrive.
His conversion is a symptom of the growing support north of the border for a separate Scotland, with more people now saying they would back independence rather than the status quo in a referendum.
Fry's epiphany came as he was writing a book on the union between Scotland and England, with the 300th anniversary falling on May 1 next year.
The tercentenary comes two days before Scottish parliament elections due on May 3, in which the Scottish National Party is expected to make its strongest challenge for power so far.
As a Conservative candidate in the 1980s and 1990s, Fry was a staunch defender of the union with Britain - but now he is a nationalist. "I have changed my mind," he says. "I believe in an independent Scotland. I will do what I can to bring it about."
His change of heart was brought about by the failure of the devolution of power from London to Edinburgh, he said. "Devolution has proved to be completely hopeless, if anything making Scotland a worse country rather than better. You can do more, and do better, under independence than you can by basically rattling the begging bowl at the British Government, saying, 'Can we have some more money'."
Fry, one of Scotland's most prolific historians, caused outrage last year with his revisionist claims about the Highland clearances, when Scottish crofters were driven from their smallholdings by big landlords. He said this was an inevitable product of economic change, and that critics were romanticising a culture in which the Scots were portrayed as victims.
Fry now says his conversion to independence is in line with his Conservative philosophical outlook, and points to Estonia and Ireland as two thriving independent countries that Scotland could learn from.
Public opinion north of the border is at its most nationalist for years. A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times showed the SNP capable of winning power next year if it formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. In the poll, 44 per cent of Scots backed independence, 42 per cent opposed it, and 15 per cent were undecided. SNP leader Alex Salmond was preferred as first minister, beating Jack McConnell, Labour leader of the current administration.
Fry's announcement follows a similar conversion to independence by Scottish historian Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University.