A very warm welcome to our iScot issue 70. Our front cover depicts a Samuel Wale engraving of the Duke of Queensberry presenting the Act of Union to Queen Anne in 1707. It was the conservative PM Theresa May who claimed that “the UK was the most successful political union the world has ever known.” Was it though? iScot’s Gordon Craigie takes a look at the threats and intimidation that eventually bought and sold a nation.