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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HUESCA, 10 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -
El grupo de Amnistía Internacional de Huesca realiza este sábado, día 10 de diciembre, dos acciones en conmemoración del Día de los Derechos Humanos, con una maratón de recogida de firmas por tres casos de violación de la libertad de expresión.
Las acciones se realizarán en Huesca, en los Porches de Galicia, entre las 11.30 y las 13.30 horas, y en la localidad oscense de Jaca, en la calle Mayor, entre las 18.00 y las 20.00 horas.
En el Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, Amnistía Internacional quiere alertar en esta ocasión sobre el "aumento de los ataques generalizados contra la libertad de expresión en todo el mundo".
En el manifiesto de este Día, señalan que "miles de activistas, periodistas, manifestantes pacíficos, sindicalistas, miembros de minorías religiosas o étnicas, entre otros, siguen siendo perseguidos, amenazados, encarcelados, torturados o asesinados por el mero hecho de disentir".
Según los datos de Amnistía Internacional, en 2010 se produjeron ataques contra la libertad de expresión en al menos 89 países. "En algunos lugares del mundo esta represión ha aumentado de manera brutal en la calle, como se ha podido apreciar en las revueltas de la primavera árabe, en las que a pesar del riesgo, miles de personas no han aceptado ser silenciadas".
El manifiesto continúa apuntando que "la ola de cambio vivida durante 2011 en varios países del Norte de África y de Oriente Próximo ha dado lugar a que los gobiernos hayan intentado limitar el derecho a la libertad de expresión mediante amenazas, detenciones, torturas o asesinatos de disidentes pacíficos".
Según Amnistía Internacional, "cientos de miles de manifestantes, en ciudades como Túnez, El Cairo, Manama o Damasco llevan meses poniendo incluso su vida en riesgo para exigir justicia y libertad en sus países".
Por esas personas y por otras en iguales circunstancias en otros lugares del mundo, los activistas de Amnistía Internacional han organizado esta maratón de recogida de firmas de 24 horas en 50 municipios por tres casos de personas en riesgo en Corea del Norte, Turquía y Siria.
¿Nos unimos?
Pues hagámoslo, pero sin dejarlo para más adelante.
¡Bien por recordanos el origen de este día que hoy -por ayer- DEBEMOS conmemorar y mantener su memoría y, con ella, la lucha que la hizó posible! Y también por explicarnos que la corrupción (y las corruptelas de cada día) son pasos atrás que no podemos permitirnos.
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