EmailJust in case people were unaware of the import of today's referendum on Scottish independence, the London-based English national newspapers have reminded them.
They have published an unprecedented series of dramatic front pages, with several featuring the union flag of Great Britain and the Scottish saltire.
The headlines are suitably portentous. From "Day of destiny" (The Guardian) through "Great Britain on the brink" (Daily Express) to "Is this the day the UK dies?" (Daily Mail).
"Don't leave us this way," pleads the Daily Mirror. "Better together", says the Sun, but it wasn't about the referendum. It used the Yes campaign slogan to make a joke about Prince Harry getting back together with his former girlfriend Cressida Bonas (a joke I missed entirely in an earlier version of this posting. Doh!)
Scotland's unofficial national poet, Robert Burns, is given headline status on the Daily Telegraph's front:
"Be Britain still to Britain true,
Amang yourselves united;
For never but by British hands
Maun British wrongs be righted!"
Another better-known Burns verse appears on the back of the Times's union flag wrap-around cover:
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!"
On the front of the cover, the Times's headline says: "D-day for the union". And the Financial Times's splash headline is, by its standards, almost poetic: "Beauty and terror leave Scots on the rack - and the brink of history".
The Independent's headline was slightly more oblique, "The 307-year itch", a reference to a piece by Andreas Whittam Smith about the 1707 act of union that created a single parliament for England and Scotland.
Most of the national titles reiterated their pro-unionist stance. They were joined by a couple of northern regional papers: both the Northern Echo in Darlington and the Yorkshire Post in Leeds backed a No vote too.
The Post was supporting the views expressed by its Johnston Press stablemate in Edinburgh, The Scotsman, while the Echo was - forgive the pun - echoing the opinion of its Newsquest stablemate in Glasgow, The Herald (rather than its sister title, the Sunday Herald, which is the only paper to have backed the Yes campaign).
Incidentally, Burns also got front page billing with the Daily Record, which ran a wrap-around with this verse:
"Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a' that,
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the free, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that"
It's secondary front page showed Alistair Darling face to face with Alex Salmond, the latest poll showing a 6% lead for the No vote and a religious headline: "All to pray for."
Metro's Scottish editions also chose Burns for their splash headline: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot?"
