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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ANUNCIO de 3 de septiembre de 2014, de la Secretaría General Técnica de Hacienda y Administración Pública, por la que se da publicidad a los ceses y nombramientos de personal eventual adscrito al Departamento de Hacienda y Administración Pública.
De acuerdo con lo previsto en el artículo 25.5 de la Ley 2/2009, de 11 de mayo, del Presidente y del Gobierno de Aragón, se da publicidad a los siguientes ceses y nombramientos de personal eventual del Departamento de Hacienda y Administración Pública.
Zaragoza, 3 de septiembre de 2014.
La Secretaria General Técnica,
LAURA MORENO CASADO
Marcelino Iglesias amañó en Aragón el contrato de una obra y la infló en 150 millones.
el mundo
El Gobierno de Aragón que presidía el socialista Marcelino Iglesias dio instrucciones para amañar el concurso de las obras de urbanización de la plataforma logística Plaza a favor de Necso Entrecanales, la constructora de Acciona, según correos electrónicos que la Udef ha entregado al juez de Zaragoza que investiga el caso. Ese trabajo tuvo un sobrecoste de 158 millones, 94 de ellos sin justificar, pero que aquel Ejecutivo aceptó.
La UTE que formaron Necso y su socio local, MLN, terminó facturando por ese contrato, correspondiente a la segunda fase de la urbanización, 204 millones más IVA, un precio cinco veces superior a los 46 millones por los que había sido adjudicado. Los informes periciales que constan en el procedimiento estiman que casi dos terceras partes de ese fabuloso sobrecoste -94 millones- es injustificado y se debe a una catarata de irregularidades: desde mediciones infladas para poder incrementar los precios a certificaciones de obras no ejecutadas y justificadas con facturas falsas cuyo importe se destinaba, en parte, a regalos y pagos en especie.
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy congratulated Scotland's citizens for "clearly and unequivocally" choosing to remain part of the UK and the European Union.
In a video lasting almost two minutes, Mr Rajoy said that Scots had voted "en masse, peacefully and with scrupulous respect to the laws of their country".
The Spanish government had insinuated that it would have vetoed entry to the EU for an independent Scotland as it deals with a growing separatist movement of its own in the north eastern region of Catalonia.
The ruling coalition in Catalonia's regional government hopes to hold a referendum on independence on November 9 which has been declared unconstitutional and therefore illegal by the central government in Madrid.
Mr Rajoy said: "With their decision, the Scots have avoided the serious economic, social, institutional and political consequences that their separation from the UK and Europe would have supposed.
"Yesterday they chose between segregation and integration, between isolation and openness, between stability and uncertainty, between security and real risk.
"They have chosen the most favourable option for all, for themselves, for the rest of British citizens and for the whole of Europe.
"I believe profoundly in the integration of the EU. I think that is the path which has led us to overcome the tragedies of our history and allows us to successfully deal with the challenges of the future.
"To have success in that endeavour everyone is needed and that is why we are very happy that Scotland is still with us."
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