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)
7 comentarios:
Si hay plaza vacante se cubre con una comisión de servicio y se espera a que cuadre la foto del elegido para sacarla a concurso,si algún día se saca.
Claro que la lógica se ha invertido por completo.
Se prepara la función para la persona.
¿Se siente este Gobierno sometido al principio de legalidad o piensa que a él no le concierne? ¿Sólo a los ciudadanos? ¿Hay alguna norma que no esté dispuesto a incumplir?
Nada en prensa: ¿silencio pactado?
Griñán admite un "error" en la reorganización del sector público
El presidente de la Junta asegura que "cree profundamente" en el funcionariado y niega que se prevea instaurar un modo de acceso incompatible con el convenio.
DIARIO DE SEVILLA.
El presidente de la Junta, José Antonio Griñán, ha admitido este sábado el "error" de la administración en la tramitación en la reorganización del sector público andaluz, que se hará como proyecto de ley tras descartar la idea inicial de hacerlo como decreto ley.
En un acto político del PSOE-A en Sevilla, el presidente andaluz y secretario general de los socialistas andaluces ha justificado el error en el hecho de que no pudieron dialogar con los sindicatos porque era algo "imposible" por la huelga general convocada para el 29 de septiembre.
También se tomó la decisión de tramitar la reestructuración a través de un decreto porque, según Griñán, tenían la "urgencia" de hacerlo así ante la exigencia de acometerla antes del Consejo de Política Fiscal y Financiera.
Tras afirmar que tiene trece trienios así como que "cree profundamente" y "respeta" a los funcionarios, a los que ha confiado la sanidad y la educación de su familia, Griñán ha negado que la reestructuración prevea hacer funcionarios a personas que no pasen determinadas pruebas y que no se respete el convenio colectivo.
En el acto político, celebrado en el Pabellón de Italia de la Isla de la Cartuja de Sevilla, protegido por varias furgonetas policiales, el presidente ha señalado que después de los "problemas de interlocución" iniciales, el diálogo ahora "va en la buena dirección" para lograr una "administración más ágil" al servicio de los ciudadanos.
DIARIO DE SEVILLA.
Estará esta asociación vigilante en las pruebas de selección??
En que medida se influye por parte del Colegio de Polítologos y sociólogos de Aragón? Y desde el departamento de la Universidad de Zaragoza?
Quién controlará el proceso de selección?
El colegio de politólogos y sociólogos de Aragón o el Departamento de la Universidad?
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