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)
12 comentarios:
¿Volvemos a la actividad? Magnífico.
La arbitrariedad del gobierno no cesa, y por eso el control ha de ser permanente.
¿Creerán que ser de izquierdas es no hacer nada a derechas?
Personal eventual: Es personal eventual el que, en virtud de nombramiento y con carácter no permanente, sólo realiza funciones expresamente calificadas como de confianza o asesoramiento especial, siendo retribuido con cargo a los créditos presupuestarios consignados para este fin.
Recogido hoy en El Periódico de Aragón:
El Justicia de Aragón ha admitido a trámite la queja formulada por la Asociación para la Defensa de la Función Pública Aragonesa por la "irregular" publicación de los nombramientos y ceses del personal eventual que ocupa puestos de confianza en los gabinetes de los miembros del Ejecutivo.
La asociación asegura que, pese a la exigencia de publicación en el Boletín Oficial de Aragón de los nombramientos y ceses del personal eventual de la DGA, los diferentes departamentos "se han limitado a publicar un mero anuncio de tales decisiones, suscrito por el Secretario General Técnico del respectivo departamento y no por la autoridad competente para acordarlas".
Esta forma de proceder, a juicio de esta asociación, contradice las condiciones de publicación de los actos administrativos, norma básica de obligado cumplimiento por todas las Administraciones. La asociación formuló la oportuna queja al Justicia de Aragón, el cual, tras el análisis de admisibilidad, acordó su tramitación y se ha dirigido al Departamento de Presidencia para que le informe al respecto.
Comentario a la noticia:
Deberian cesar a todos los funcionarios y personal de confianza que estan viendo pasar el dia y cobrando a final de mes.
El horno no esta para bollos y sobran muchisimos funcionarios. Las empresas tienen que reestructurarse y de la misma forma las administraciones publicas deberan adaptarse a los ingresos que tienen.
Otro comentario:
También tendría que revisar como los sindicatos se inventan formas de ascender (las habilitaciones) para sus afiliados dentro de la función pública (DGA), la forma de ascender es un exámen "preparado" para que aprueben los que el sindicato quiere aunque no tengan conocimientos, y el que aprueba a cobrar más con la nueva categoría...
¿Eso ocurre, de verdad, con las habilitaciones?
¿Y ahora la promoción interna temporal?
Un tercer comentario:
A ver cuándo revisan el rendimiento de los funcionarios que a no ser que cometan una barbaridad no les expedientan.
Un último comentario escéptico:
NADARÁ Y GUARDARÁ LA ROPA, NO SEA QUE LE PASE COMO A LANUZA POR SER IMPARCIAL.
¿Aún ruedan cabezas, aunque sea en sentido figurado?
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