Zaragoza, 12 de febrero de 2008.
En respuesta a la solicitud efectuada por el Presidente de la Asociación al Director General de Participación Ciudadana, Ignacio Celaya, para sostener un encuentro en el que poder abordar distintas cuestiones, en particular el tratamiento que los responsables de la Administración autonómica vienen dando a los diferentes escritos formulados por la Asociación al amparo del derecho fundamental de petición, reconocido en el artículo 29 de la Constitución, dicho Director General le ha comunicado por escrito al Presidente de la Asociación, Julio Guiral, su deseo de “mantener una reunión con la Junta de vuestra Asociación, con el convencimiento de que encontraremos puntos de trabajo en común”.
Para ello, propone la posibilidad de sostener dicha reunión el jueves 21 de febrero, por la tarde, en su despacho en el Edificio Pignatelli, fecha que ha sido valorada positivamente desde esta Asociación, ya que permitirá que a dicho encuentro acudan los miembros de la nueva Junta Directiva que resulte elegida en la Asamblea ordinaria celebrada el día 14 de febrero.
Valoramos positivamente que la interlocución con el Departamento de Presidencia, responsable de los temas de organización y función pública, se canalice a través del Director General de Participación Ciudadana, pues esta Asociación, pese a estar compuesta por funcionarios, se considera parte de la sociedad civil y desde esa condición, la de ciudadanos incorporados al ejercicio de la función pública, al servicio de los demás ciudadanos, es desde la que se desea procurar la defensa de los valores, normas y principios que han de presidir el ejercicio de la función pública y el funcionamiento de las instituciones autonómicas.
Like the battle of Waterloo, the battle for Scotland was a damn close-run thing. The effects of Thursday’s no vote are enormous – though not as massive as the consequences of a yes would have been.
The vote against independence means, above all, that the 307-year Union survives. It therefore means that the UK remains a G7 economic power and a member of the UN security council. It means Scotland will get more devolution. It means David Cameron will not be forced out. It means any Ed Miliband-led government elected next May has the chance to serve a full term, not find itself without a majority in 2016, when the Scots would have left. It means the pollsters got it right, Madrid will sleep a little more easily, and it means the banks will open on Friday morning as usual.
But the battlefield is still full of resonant lessons. The win, though close, was decisive. It looks like a 54%-46% or thereabouts. That’s not as good as it looked like being a couple of months ago. But it’s a lot more decisive than the recent polls had hinted. Second, it was women who saved the union. In the polls, men were decisively in favour of yes. The yes campaign was in some sense a guy thing. Men wanted to make a break with the Scotland they inhabit. Women didn’t. Third, this was to a significant degree a class vote too. Richer Scotland stuck with the union — so no did very well in a lot of traditonal SNP areas. Poorer Scotland, Labour Scotland, slipped towards yes, handing Glasgow, Dundee and North Lanarkshire to the independence camp. Gordon Brown stopped the slippage from becoming a rout, perhaps, but the questions for Labour — and for left politics more broadly — are profound.
For Scots, the no vote means relief for some, despair for others, both on the grand scale. For those who dreamed that a yes vote would take Scots on a journey to a land of milk, oil and honey, the mood this morning will be grim. Something that thousands of Scots wanted to be wonderful or merely just to witness has disappeared. The anticlimax will be cruel and crushing. For others, the majority, there will be thankfulness above all but uneasiness too. Thursday’s vote exposed a Scotland divided down the middle and against itself. Healing that hurt will not be easy or quick. It’s time to put away all flags.
The immediate political question now suddenly moves to London. Gordon Brown promised last week that work will start on Friday on drawing up the terms of a new devolution settlement. That may be a promise too far after the red-eyed adrenalin-pumping exhaustion of the past few days. But the deal needs to be on the table by the end of next month. It will not be easy to reconcile all the interests – Scots, English, Welsh, Northern Irish and local. But it is an epochal opportunity. The plan, like the banks, is too big to fail.
Alex Salmond and the SNP are not going anywhere. They will still govern Scotland until 2016. There will be speculation about Salmond’s position, and the SNP will need to decide whether to run in 2016 on a second referendum pledge. More immediately, the SNP will have to decide whether to go all-out win to more Westminster seats in the 2015 general election, in order to hold the next government’s feet to the fire over the promised devo-max settlement. Independence campaigners will feel gutted this morning. But they came within a whisker of ending the United Kingdom on Thursday. One day, perhaps soon, they will surely be back.
(Artículo de Martin Kettle, publicado en "The Guardian" el 19 de septiembre de 2014)
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