#dnaEdit: Averting a storm

For now, the United Kingdom has warded off its immediate dismemberment. At the end of a hard-fought, keenly anticipated battle, the majority of people of Scotland decided to stick with the United Kingdom, rejecting the impassioned call for a separation from the Union. As the results of the historic referendum became clear, the panic anxiety — so clearly visible among the NO campaigners and unionists in the final days of the campaign — subsided. Even as the pro-independence YES group could be seen fighting hard their disappointment — even despair — at losing a momentous opportunity to reimagine Scotland’s destiny. 

By a margin of 55% to 45%, and on a vast 86% turnout, Scots rejected the call for independence championed by the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP). But its not the end of the road. The words of Alex Salmond, SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland had a prophetic ring: “1.6 million votes is a substantial vote for Scottish independence and the future of the country,” Salmond said soon after the results were out. 

For now the storm has passed. But the passionate debate around independence, the energetic participation of Scots — young and old in the process of referendum — made one thing clear: business can’t go on as usual. No longer can Westminster take Scots for granted — like they can’t the people in Wales, Northern Ireland as well as England. No longer can issues of decentralisation, autonomy and the right to decide one’s own economic, political and cultural policies be shoved aside as they were in the past. 

Deep divisions have split Scotland down the middle. While the well-heeled voted in favour of the union, a large working-class segment, hit hard since  Thatcher’s disastrous economic policies destroyed Scotland’s manufacturing base, leaned towards independence. Poorer Scotland, Labour Scotland, voted YES, handing Glasgow, Dundee and North Lanarkshire to the independence camp. The referendum results have raised profound questions for Labour — and in general — for Left politics. The pro-unionists in their referendum campaign created an atmosphere of fear with banks and corporations threatening to pull out their businesses — if  Scots left the UK. But the underpinnings of the referendum reside in the larger philosophy of the contemporary age. The nation states are not holding together in the face of resurgent sub-nationalism. The UK is no exception.  

The focus will now shift to how the UK government will deliver its promise to devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament, based at Holyrood, Edinburgh. Within hours of the referendum results, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, committed himself to devolution of powers across Great Britain, including votes on English issues by English MPs at Westminster. But he made clear that the Constitutional reforms including in Scotland can only be delivered after the general election in England. “We have heard the voice of Scotland and now the millions of the voices of England must be heard,” he said. Reconciling the diverse interests — Scots, English, Welsh, Northern Irish and local — will not be easy. But the referendum has opened up the possibility of renegotiating the template of the union and adopting a federal structure. Westminster must seize the opportunity. Alex Salmond and his party are not disappearing any time soon. They will  helm Scotland until 2016 — when the SNP has to decide whether to run on a second referendum pledge. Independence campaigners have been forced to call it a day. But they have changed the discourse of governance. And perhaps the day that they will return is not that far away.