It was vastly encouraging that Scotland voted to stay in the UK by a substantial margin, and the nationalist leader and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond conceded with a blunt statement that he “accepted the Scottish people’s verdict”. The vote was 55.3 per cent in favour of continuing the union and 44.3 per cent in favour of independence, which was roughly what had been predicted a month ago although a last minute swing in favour of independence made a much closer result seem more likely when the polls opened.
The viciousness of the campaigning now needs to give way to a healing process as Scots from both sides of the debate need to reconnect with respect. The clarity of the large majority in favour of the union will help, since the ‘Yes’ supporters cannot argue that it was a narrow vote and they cannot say that they deserve another chance, even if Salmond did add a gratuitous “for now” in his acceptance speech. It will not be easy to overcome the bitterness of the debate, but during yesterday’s declarations of results it was encouraging that so many politicians from all sides spoke of the need to rebuild. A lot of the focus now moves to how the increased devolution will work in practice, as UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s lazy management of the Scottish campaign has to be followed by a new Scotland Bill that is due early next year. Salmond will be watching carefully to make sure that the three main British parties stick to what they promised in the way of increased powers of taxation and other wider authorities. What is new for the UK is that this debate now includes discussions on how similar devolution can be managed in England, although most Westminster politicians still fail to grasp that England is too large to benefit from regional devolution and recognise that a new layer of between six to eight regions needs to be established in England to receive genuine autonomy and allow Westminster to become a real federal parliament for the whole of the UK. The Scottish debate would have a tremendous legacy if it led to the creation of English regions like the North, the Midlands, London, the West Country, and the Home Counties.
