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)
6 comentarios:
La Admón está muy necesitada de un control y defensa de la legalidad y esta Asociación (otros deberían tomar nota: ¿sindicatos?) está legitimada para ello porque quien sufre la arbitrariedad de los señoritos de aquella somos (¿todos?) los empleados públicos y la Administración es el gran botín, desde donde ejercen un nepotismo moderno.
Los puestos de trabajo han de ser cubiertos por empleados públicos y debe hacerse en la forma legalmente establecida, conforme a los criterios constitucionales de igualdad, mérito y capacidad, a través de la aprobación anual de la correspondiente Oferta de Empleo Público y a través de concursos de méritos de todas las vacantes que se producen y no a través del medio utilizado habitualmente: LA COMISIÓN DE SERVICIO, medio utilizado por el “padrino” para repartir sus prebendas y ejercer su poderío en su reino entre sus allegados y afines creando sus propios clanes.
¿Serán receptivos los tribunales a las tesis de la asociación?
¿O seguirán tan acomodaticios como hasta ahora?
La COMISION DE SERVICIO, es el reglamento de promoción, es la carrera administrativa, es la ley del "señor", es la forma de convertir los principios de igualdad, mérito, capacidad, … legalidad, en el de “yo mando, yo decido”, en una palabra santificar la discrecionalidad y la arbitrariedad, el arma perfecta del padrino para promocionar y proteger al amiguete y de protección del clan.
LA COMISIÓN DE SERVICIO es el instrumento en manos de unos cuantos para hacer de la Admon su cortijo, para repartir puestos y prebendas entre sus palmeros.Esta figura debería tener un carácter provisional, temporal y para cubrir una necesidad momentánea, se ha convertido en la herramienta de promoción y ascenso del funcionario, solo se requiere buscar el “padrino” adecuado y ya está. Queremos concursos públicos de méritos y objetivos no comisiones, queremos funcionarios profesionales, no asesores ni vividores
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