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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DIARIO DEL ALTOARAGON
Los funcionarios exigen que las Cortes investiguen la corrupción en Pla-Za
La Asociación para la Defensa de la Función Pública Aragonesa pide la creación de una comisión parlamentaria
EUROPA PRESS
21/08/2013
ZARAGOZA.- La Asociación para la Defensa de la Función Pública Aragonesa pidió ayer la creación de una Comisión de investigación en las Cortes autónomas para aclarar las posibles responsabilidades políticas en la gestión de la Plataforma Logística de Zaragoza (Pla-Za). La entidad se dirigirá al Parlamento autónomo para solicitar la puesta en marcha de esta Comisión.
ZARAGOZA, 19 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -
El Grupo Parlamentario de IU de las Cortes de Aragón ha solicitado hoy a la Mesa de la Cámara que proponga al Pleno la creación de una Comisión de investigación sobre el "caso Plaza".
La solicitud ha sido registrada tras la denuncia interpuesta por la Fiscalía Anticorrupción en relación a la empresa pública PLAZA S.A. y que ha provocado, entre otras, la apertura del "oportuno" expediente judicial, la detención y toma de declaración del exgerente de Plaza, Ricardo García Becerril, el director técnico, Miguel Ángel Pérez, y el director de obra de Intecsa-Inarsa, Nico Groeneveld, a quienes la Fiscalía atribuye cinco delitos económicos relacionados con la urbanización de la plataforma.
Ante esta situación, "a la que habría que sumar diferentes irregularidades administrativas puestas en conocimiento a raíz de diferentes informes del Tribunal de Cuentas y de la Cámara de Cuentas de Aragón", Izquierda Unida ha reclamado que se "depuren responsabilidades", se "aclaren todas las dudas" y "rindan cuentas los responsables políticos de esta gestión", porque "PLAZA S.A, es un proyecto público cuya mayoría ostenta el Gobierno de Aragón", ha señalado el diputado de IU Aragón, Miguel Aso.
"Esperamos que, dada la gravedad de los hechos, la Mesa de las Cortes permita, cuanto menos, su inclusión en el orden del día de una sesión plenaria para que pueda fijarse públicamente la posición de los Grupos Parlamentarios habida cuenta que IU no tiene diputados suficientes para que esta iniciativa pase de manera directa a ser debatida por el Pleno Cámara", ha concluido Aso.
Comentario:
Bueno, bueno, poco a poco comienza a levantarse el tufillo de la corruptela burocrática de nuestra comunidad... ¿quién caerá?
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