What now?

The Union forged by the efforts and right of the Scottish Stuart kings is thankfully still intact, having been subject to a vote which ought not to have taken place. That vote, however, was carried in part by the out-and-out poorest regions of Scotland – namely the Mairches, East Lothian, Stirling and Argyll and Bute, which turned out against independence by wide margins. It would be insulting and wrong to assert that these regions only voted ‘No’ on the basis of Westminster threats, or on the basis of a lack of information. I believe they understand quite well that any chance of an improvement in dignity and in quality of life will have to come together with their English, Welsh and Irish brethren.

It is interesting also that the Union won so strongly in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, but hardly surprising. What should be illustrative to Scotland and to the rest of Britain is the fact that one of the four constituencies that carried a vote for independence was Glasgow, of all places. The Glaswegian electorate is, in point of fact, one of the wealthiest in all of Britain outside the South East (along with Aberdeen and Edinburgh); and its vote shows that the Yes campaign was not by any stretch of the imagination a movement of poor Scots who had been victimised long enough by Thatcherism.

In any event, the vote has happened, and it has duly shaken up the status quo in the UK. The Scottish electorate can no longer be safely ignored. Regardless of the sincerity of the arguments presented by Alex Salmond, the Yes campaign managed to tap into sentiments amongst the Scottish electorate which even this staunch Unionist feels are natural, just and proper. It simply won’t do for Britain to uncritically play host to American nuclear weapons, to adopt austerity measures from Brussels without consulting all of the United Kingdom, to sally forth at our (their former colonies’) slightest arbitrary and belligerent whim against some third-rate Middle Eastern nation. In all of these things, the Yes campaign managed to position itself in the right, and that should have been felt throughout the UK.

Maybe it is hypocritical of me to say so. But then, I can only ask that the Lord will have mercy on me, a sinner, and give me to say the truth even if I myself am too darkened to live it out. The best that can come from this vote is that Westminster will honour the concessions they have made, even at the last minute, in order to head off the Yes campaign. The best that can come from this vote is that the United Kingdom will tack into a more federalist, Eurosceptic and left-leaning wind. That it will show a firmer and more sincere commitment to a genuine social safety net for the poorest English, Welsh, Irish and Scots all four. Scotland has demanded, and will again demand it. And the northern English and the Welsh – far more so than the Scots – will need it.

More than this vote has, how Westminster reacts to it will determine the fate of the Union.