State of the Union address

Tony Blair (or whoever writes these things for him) defends the Union in the Telegraph:

We celebrate this year the 300th anniversary of what can justifiably be claimed to be the most successful voluntary union between two countries.

It's a partnership that has brought the citizens of both Scotland and England prosperity, stability and an astonishing influence in the world. We can now see, too, that it was an arrangement well ahead of its time, enabling the countries of what was to become the United Kingdom to keep their distinctive identity, but to co-operate to their greater good.

I do think Tony wrote some of it. (You can tell by strange sentences like: It's true, of course, that the Union has not stayed the same, nor the reasons for it. ) I mostly agree with him.