Its over - Mebbees aye, mebbees NAW!

Aye, Dundee might be known for jam jute and journalism but now it is the official capital of the Yes vote and  Glasgow, North Lanarkshire & West Dunbartonshire can also lay claim to having smelt the roses. I'd suggest future campaigns start there but I doubt there will be any. We are unlikely to be afforded another chance in the next 30 years. We must now find a way forward in the current set up.

Firstly though, Falkirk. What are they drinking out of the canal there. Ballot stations closing at 4pm because everyone had voted!! This is hysterical, it tops the imperial masters rickshaw. If we could get the rest of the population to follow that polling station in Falkirk these votes would cost peanuts. Like a self service bar. Open until 4pm thereafter, Joan, Elsie, Jimmy and Big Tam you'll find your ballot paper behind the bar. Just pop it in the box there. This is the democracy we strive for. The one where every vote counts and people feel they count. 88% in Falkirk and Clackmannanshire is a pretty tasty turnout.

As for the No campaign, I always thought the closer to the power the more likely you are to cling on. My home city voted overwhelmingly, No Tack! 

Caution is something we do well. Random decisions get made all around us but generally speaking we are a cautious lot. This is why the No campaign were well advised to tell us that we could'nae organise a piss up in a brewery. All of them should know as they have been running the UK for the whole of our lives.

But it is politics. This is why Gordon Brown could tell us how he knew best. The same guy that the rest of the UK told to walk along short plank. He was a good foil for them. England hated him so we had to listen. Everyone had their underdog, and every underdog has its day. I backed an 18/1 shot the other day and watched it scoot up.

The key to the No campaign for me early on was that they convinced me to vote No. I wanted to vote YES, but when I saw how inept their campaigning was, I realised we were going to be in trouble long term. I then heard the pack of lies coming out of London and relaxed and voted Yes. Long term the voter turn out suggests this country will have a lot more entrants into politics from different spheres, not just the Oxbridge graduates.

The best answer Salmond gave was if we cost the rest of the UK so much whiy do they want us. Like a one legged sheep dog they came up and showered love and platitudes on us that clearly had a few of us puking. The original vote was supposed to be 65% - 35%, so did the imperial masters help or hinder the cause.

My life has been sorting out messes made in haste by people in London. Highly pressurised, tired from long daily commutes and unable to make decisions on the hoof one lot racked up debts of £500m. Sorting it out was fun, but stopping them making the same mistakes again was not so easy. Others like me went down and sorted these types of messes out but the penny never dropped and my affinity with London is now primarily on the social side. Big metropolitan centres suck people and jobs in but when they cant get the best they take whatever is available locally. There is now a massive crisis in London as they suck people in but dont have the education or transport infrastructure.

I wondered what part the Trams would play. You can have Cross rail, HS2, Wembley stadium, the millenium dome or even a big fucking aircraft carrier that was the wrong size for the planes, to name a few miscalculations, but we were in Scotland and we were in Edinburgh, a decision that the council made and then found themselves over a barrel with. Hmmm, if we deliver nothing it costs £500m deliver something it cost £800m. This was a proper fuck up. The No campaign used it very successfully to scare the people of Edinburgh it couldnt govern, only London could. 

For me the greatest thing about the referendum was the turnout. On average 84% of people got out of their bed, care homes and asylums to vote. Even if a lot of the older people were more cautious and swayed the result, I dont care. I'd rather they vote against my preference than not vote at all, I'm mad that way. Its quite funny that a turnout of 75% can be considered low. My own take is Glasgow got a high turn out and thats why it voted YES. In an ultra high turnout it is blind panic and caution to say No that wins the day. I've not done the sums but I figure if Falkirk had 88% turnout the 43% who voted no probably equates to the 50+% who voted yes in Glasgow. IE YES generally polled at 40% of the total possible and they squeezed every bit out. The unknown, status quo cant be arse converted to a No vote in many areas but in Glasgow it did stay in bed awaiting a conclusion. 75% is huge though and it shows that politicians have engaged the public better than ever before, even if the purple prose was at its most poetic.

Hysterically funny how many barrels of oil surfaced hours after the referendum vote closed. In case we didnt know its not just Salmond, all politicians present to us what they want. Some people call this lying, but they arent all lying bastards. They just forget things from time to time.

I feel its time to bring in SS Politician. Yes Whisky Galore. Yes all those barrels of oil had been hidden and when the good ship went down, up they popped!!

I think if the SNP missed a trick they needed to get UK Sport involved. Not for their votes but for the 0.2% here and there that they needed, one I thought was worth 0.3% was they could have suggested their future name. We knew we didnt want the SNP governing us as nationalists just want independence. If they keep the name afterwards it suggests, Franco, or  others who have continued to govern as nationalists. Had they suggested they would be opening up a democratic party to encourage membership and new representatives it might have shown more of the futre and how we'd participate. The vacuum was filled by fear from opposition parties who through the BBC proposed that Jim Sillars represented the only view likely to oppose Salmond. Jim Sillars and many others would undoubtedly have been hugely influential, but we would have had many more, the YES campaign never succeeded in selling them. Ironically Gordon Brown was positioning himself for prime minister of Scotland, it would've been a great trivial pursuit question in 2050. 

We do want a democracy in our country. We currently have not got a democracy. The UK is a busted flush. They are clinging on in the houses of parliament, but constitutional reform must come.

What will it look like?

The same, ride out the storm, get the general election over with and then do nothing. W had a bite at the cherry, hope everyone enjoyed it.

There are a few postscripts

Firstly - 97% of the electorate registered to vote. OK if we know its 97% how do we know the 3% didnt? We must know who they are, why did they not tell us throughout the campaign who the 3% are.

Secondly - It seems Lloyds are still moving the jobs. The referendum was a convenient opportunity and not one to miss.