“So the United Kingdom is safe it seems, for now. However the notion of a British identity is forever tarnished.”
Those were my words at five o’clock this morning when the majority of votes had been counted and the Better Together campaign (finally) looked to have carried the day.
At the end of the process however, nobody should be celebrating this result.
Understandably the Yes campaigners and voters will be disappointed with their failure to convince enough people that Alex Salmond’s vision was anything more than a vision.
On the part of my fellow Unionists north of Hadrian’s Wall, and of the MP’s in Westminster it must be understood that the United Kingdom has dodged a bullet, and we’re talking a high velocity .50 cal bullet. This referendum has been the single biggest challenge to UK’s sovereignty and legitimacy, and the Establishment, and unionists all over the UK were caught napping in the closing weeks of this campaign.
As for British Identity, I consider myself to be British before English, and never before has a political event scared me as much as this referendum. After all, while nobody can argue that this decision could have been taken any other way, it guiles me that 4.4 million people can suddenly decide to pull the rug out from underneath the other ~60 million Britons in terms of their nationality.
However, it hasn’t happenned and so that identity is safe for now, but after the animosity of the last few weeks, especially with Alex Salmond’s constant demonisation of England and the English, there are going to need to be a lot of bridges built that had been burnt down.
Are there any positives to talk about today? Certainly there are, firstly there has been a massive turnout in this election, and with a General Election guaranteed to happen next year, I am hopeful that the rest of the United Kingdom will step up to the plate and turn up to vote when the day comes along.
Secondly, given how close we have come to the effective dissolution of the union, there is now an opportunity for the UK Government to fundamentally change the way our great nation is run. This is especially so given some of the noises coming out of Wales, Northern Ireland and some English Regions regarding the possible adjustment of the Barnet Formula and the ‘West Lothian Question’. For my part I think it is high time that the UK took a long, hard look at federalism.
Summary of Results:
