Forget tea time, beefeaters or those derelict red phone boxes – nothing makes you feel more proud to be British that the world's most photogenic royal couple announcing that they're expecting a second child.

 

And with ten days until Scotland votes on whether to remain part of the - proudly royal - British union, could the excitement over the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their second baby help keep England and Scotland together?

 

After all, the story of the Kate and William begins in Scotland, where the couple met in 2001 while studying at the University of St Andrews. The royal romance gave the small university global recognition and students would be bereft¹ to see their mascots² become foreign citizens should the Yes vote carry the day.

 

"We go crazy for anything royal, so this baby will be another member of the St Andrews' family as far as we're concerned," says Dani Goldberg, a fourth year marine³ biology student at the university. When Prince George was born, she says those on campus chatted excitedly about the "St Andrews' baby" and the buzz was "huge". "I was in the library and everyone looked up from their laptops, screamed and started clapping," she adds.

 

The Scottish campus is fiercely proud of their links to the couple. Students try to recreate the first dates of Kate and Wills, a cappella groups sing spoofs⁴ of how they met and photos of the couple are framed in café. Dani says that members of the single-sex social clubs that boasted Kate and William as members – the Lumsden Club and the Kate Kennedy Club – model themselves as junior versions of the couple, while the flat where Prince William lived is subject to intense scrutiny⁵ and rumours⁶ about undercover agents.

 

"When you tell people you go to St Andrews, their first question is, 'Have you met your Prince or Princess?'," she says. "St Andrews is very small and Kate and Wills are the biggest claim to fame we have."

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