HE could, through his late Aberdeenshire-born father Ian, play for Scotland, yet David William Donald Cameron often appears a reluctant visitor when, as today, he ventures north of the Border.
The Prime Minister treads very lightly on Scottish soil as if he is conscious of not setting off any political landmines.
Given the low level of popularity for the Tories in Scotland, this might be understandable. Yet it causes frustration among a number of Coalition colleagues. After all, they point out, he is the Prime Minister, not just of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but of Scotland too.
With the future of the UK at stake, the PM has to play things cannily. His reasonableness strategy on the technical details of the referendum has worked like a dream, say Whitehall insiders; the plan being not to hand any stick to Alex Salmond with which he can beat those snooty imperialists in SW1.
Thus any plan to swap the steady and urbane Michael Moore as Scottish Secretary with the more up-and-at-'em Alistair Carmichael has been quietly ditched. As one minister pointed out sagely: "You can't out-Salmond Salmond."
Timing in politics is everything. With 18 months to go before the day of destiny, Mr Cameron has to pace himself.
The polls show support for the Union. So, the thinking goes, why scare the horses? Mr Cameron will, for example, only agree to a TV head-to-head with Mr Salmond if he has to – should the polls show support for the Union slipping away.
Yet is HMS Cameron about to increase the speed in Scottish waters? There has been a flourish of pro-UK activity, with Theresa May, Ken Clarke, Philip Hammond, Vince Cable, Iain Duncan Smith and Ed Davey as well as Nick Clegg all crossing Hadrian's Wall to defend policy and the Union while highlighting the demerits of a breakaway.
The Treasury has already overseen the publication of the first UK Government policy paper against independence and another is due on currency this month; this is set to see Chancellor George Osborne venture north too.
Today, Mr Cameron will play a major Unionist card by stressing the importance of the defence industry to Scotland in terms of money and jobs. With Mr Salmond emphasising the SNP's opposition to Trident and its multibillion-pound upgrade, this appears to be a deliberate intensification of the debate.
With his first visit to Scotland in six months, Mr Cameron may be about to put on his marching boots and begin the serious stride into battle.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article