In the cold light of day

On a cool and dank North-West morning, three news items slip past on the TV news ticker feed. We hear that the Duke of Cambridge - an A list Royal - is flying off to Malta to celebrate 50 years of independence from UK. The timing is perfect, the establishment has spent the last few months rolling out the talking heads exhaustively opining that Scotland would suffer the seven hells of economic damnation should it secede from the UK. And, not 48 hours later, it is announced with great fanfare that we should be celebrating with Malta the fact that they did what Scotland did not. It should not escape comment that this visit is not a spur of the moment thing. Such events are normally planned years in advance. Did nobody out there in Establishment-land consider how this would look? What a slap across the chops this might be to the people of Scotland. Actually, they probably did not and that speaks to the depth with which the Westminster Mandarins consider Scotland and the people who live there (sorry, still cannot quite get the S----ish word out).

Move on from that and we are informed that the solemn vow to get Scotland new powers according to a strict schedule is starting to unravel as the Conservatives seek to get one over Labour. Well, who would have thought it? Quelle surprise, choque. Part of this is based on the proposition that bills concerning only the English region will be voted by only MP's from that region. Of course, this severely disadvantages Labour who presume Scotland will continue to (mindlessly) deliver many MP's to Westminster. I suspect that hubris (karma, even) will bite them next year. Of the big 2 parties in UK (I dismiss UKIP and Liberals as insignificant), Labour will come to rue the day they adopted such a leading role in the 'Bitter taegither' campaign. When the devolution vows unzip faster than a bad perm on a humid day Labour will carry the can. They are already seen as having moved too close to the Tories. I predict there will also be a backlash deriving from the political motivations of the Yes and No camps. The Yes groups have been engaged and energised by the referendum process - No were always fighting a rearguard action and do not have the same enthusiasm, the same common purpose. This will carry through to the 2015 General election. I expect Labour will take a big loss. Again, there is a sense that Westminster exists in its own bubble, with attention span showing a 'power' law relationship (a logarithmic decline) with distance from London.

Finally (for now, expect further pontifications as the enormity of the outcome sinks in), there is the analysis of (presumably declared) voting patterns. A significant age bias is claimed with the 'over 55' group disproportionately No. That this is not really a surprise should give us pause. It is easy to say that this group is looking at a shorter timeframe (20 years) over which their earning power is declining - those with greatest fear. The biggest Yes support was in the 25-55 brackets, those with longer perspective and better understanding of potential. The youngest group was evenly split - again as would be predicted, being perhaps less able to filter the various messages. Overlaying this is the social networking effect and the Yes group better exploitation strategies. Where this raises 'issues' is when it feeds into the slightly self-centred attitude of modern society. How many of the over-55 group considered the needs of their children and grand-children? There has been no dispute that Scotland has the resources to survive as a separate nation. We (or me, at least) understood that the early years of independence might be difficult (especially as rUK would react spitefully in discussions over division of goods and chattels) but that, long-term, Scotland would thrive.

Overall, we are seeing a pattern where special-interest groups and the, quite frankly, selfish and deluded electoral constituencies should be today hanging their heads in shame. Special-interest groups (the Westminster establishment, including the financial sector) are probably beyond the pale but the others, the narrow-minded and egocentric or the gullible and less-enlightened, may yet come to epiphany. If the independence of a wee speck of a place in the middle of the Mediterranean can be Royally celebrated 50 years later, then why cannot Scotland expect the same?