Let me take you back. It's September 2014 and David Cameron faces the very real prospect of being the Prime Minister who oversaw the demise of the United Kingdom.
Scotland is to vote on independence and the polls are horrifyingly close. Cameron the hard-nosed Tory melts away and his soggy leftovers entreat the Scots to stay.
Yet if a week is a long time in politics, imagine seven months. Those who agitated for independence lost the vote, but still the Tories have surrendered Scotland to them.
The Conservative campaign now takes it as given that the Scottish National Party will win the Caledonian constituencies, leaving Labour short of a majority on May 7.
What's more, Cameron and co continue to insist that Labour will make a deal with the SNP, no matter how often or loudly Ed Miliband denies it.
This is partly about winning Tory votes in England - reaffirming unionist values on one hand, while implying Labour links with secessionists on the other.
Just as important though is the effect on Scottish voters. Every anti-Tory is being told you can vote SNP and get Labour just the same - no need to be tactical.
Under normal circumstances, anything that puts your rivals further from power is par for the course, but this loss is not a Conservative gain - the SNP get the spoils.
I won't be voting for them, but I know Labour are the last levee against the nationalist flood and I would rather they ran the UK, than the Tories ran what's left of it.
Besides, how woeful is the Conservative offering that they must endanger the union, not even to get a majority, but merely to keep its opponents from one?
Nor would a Tory majority, were it possible, protect our United Kingdom.
Only the blue team will hold a referendum on EU membership and only something like an EU exit would enable Nicola Sturgeon to push for another independence vote.
Plus there's no doubt that a Conservative government would benefit the SNP - their independence rhetoric is laced with anti-Tory bluster which Labour would neutralise.
It's doubtless true that the reds will take a beating in Scotland. Miliband may also go back on his word and jump into bed with the SNP, as his rivals say he will.
The political realities are what they are and merit discussion, but the Tory party and its supporters in the press have gone beyond this.
The Sun warns against the SNP in England, but rallies behind them in Scotland. After a debate, Conservative leaders praised Sturgeon for her performance.
This party wants to carve up our country. It deserves our contempt.
Make no mistake, the referendum has not settled the independence question "for a generation." It has left a cut across the throat of our country - one that may not heal.
One people has started to think of itself as two. SNP membership has quadrupled and, in England, English votes for English laws and even a new Parliament are talked about.
With such a close result, nationalists will want the question asked again and again until they get the answer they want - it's the neverendum.
Nationalism is the politics of division, left or right. Now is the time for our country to heal; to emphasise what unites us, not what separates us.
The election is done in a day. The United Kingdom must continue.
This post originally appeared here.