Jie Bie

Nothing else to do. Showing resentment and bitterness to folk who have voted No this time around is counter-productive. I was nearly greeting when I drove past a big Yes poster on Friday, but calling No voters traitors and quislings won't increase our share of the vote from 45% to 55%. I genuinely believe that other than the animals in George Square last night, most people in Scotland would be prepared to vote Yes, if we can get the sales pitch right next time.

One no voter admitted to my face they voted No for "selfish reasons". They said they would have voted Yes if they were in their twenties, because they would have been young, or if they were in their sixties, because they would have been old, but as they were in between and comfortable in life they voted No. I had nothing to say to that other than "well everyone has a right to vote for whatever they want for whatever reason you want".

Yep I found myself laughing at one paragraph and depressed at the next.

After the first debate I thought we'd lose based on this one issue. However after a while I realised that the strategy was actually quite effective. The Yes campaign got BT to drone on and on about it in the first debate and before long the voters were sick of hearing about currency. The strategy nearly worked as most No voters I've spoken to have admitted to me that there probably would have been a currency union. In fact whenever I mentioned other small countries which have their own currencies (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, New Zealand) they would even agree we could have our own currency within 10 years of independence. For weeks I've been convinced that if Gordon Brown had signed the UK up to the Euro back when he was chancellor the currency question would have been much easier. Another reason for us to be pissed off at him!

Facebook friend of mine just shared this article. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/scottish-referendum-so-how-about-the-english-now-being-given-a-chance-to-split-from-england-9745307.html Excellent satire IMO. I particularly like the bit about "Lord" Reid.

So let's get this straight. Last week we saw Gordon Brown and the UK Labour Party save David Cameron's bacon, and we also the highland tuechters and wealthy Edinburgh folk save the top brass of Scottish Labour from defeat!? This country is fvcked.

Cheers mate.

That's cheered me up a wee bit. At least a majority of my neighbours are good guys. Where are the referendum results by constituency available? I had a look on Wikipedia earlier today and only the councils were listed.

Same for Tom Harris in Glasgow South. If a Labour party member ever asks me to "vote for us to keep the Tories out" I will laugh in their face.

They might leave that intact due to NI being a "special case"...

Agreed. If we had lost 51-49 we could probably blame "the vow", but the margin of defeat suggests Scotland would have voted No even if the last minute offer hadn't been on the table.

As much as I'd like it to happen I don't think England will vote to leave the EU. For a start, the question will probably be framed "Do you want the UK to remain in the EU?", in an attempt to copy the positivity of our Yes campaign. Secondly, big-business and the media (especially the BBC) will all line up behind remaining in the EU. Expect plenty of job loss scare stories. (Sound familiar?). Thirdly, UKIP only managed 27% of the vote in this years Euro elections where the turnout was less than 35%.

I didn't have a licence for a while and after a few months the Capta goons started turning up at my door at least once every couple of weeks. If you choose not to have a licence make sure everyone in your household who might answer the door knows how to deal with them. Yes, but if your TV is visible from a ground floor window this is a very bad idea. If they catch someone watching TV without a licence they prosecute them, and if found guilty they end up with a criminal record.

As someone who grew up under the shadow of Ravenscraig and despises NuLsbour nobody finds it more depressing than me. I talked to quite a lot of No voters yesterday and guaranteeing their standard of living won't drop one iota is the only way to win some of them over.The SNP's best bet IMO is to reposition itself as a party campaigning for home rule for Scotland. I think that would resonate with a lot of people but the worry is that it could split the party.

Agree 100% there needs to be a detailed opinion poll carried out to try and work out who voted no and why they did so. We need to learn from this. The Ashcroft data being bandied about is from a very small sample size, and can't form the basis for a proper analysis. The Yes campaign told people that a Yes vote was a vote for social justice, equality and a future fair for all. For every Yes vote that was won by this principled stand, there seems to have been a couple of No voters who didn't like the sound of that one bit. Instead of being my generations 1979, it's more like our 1992. As unpalatable as it sounds if the SNP want to win independence for Scotland they need to emulate our enemy - NuLabour. We need to win over the "I'm alright Jack" brigade in much the same way Blair did. Unfortunately the London compliant media will never cosy up to the idea of independence, so I have no idea where to start with that.

Indeed. 2 million citizens who don't care if Scotland is a country or a region.

The majority of No voters don't even care.

It certainly sounds like for every No that went to Yes there were two or three who went the other way.

Salmond had no choice after the 2011 election. The party wouldn't have stood for him not using it for a vote, and his opponents would have used it as a stick to batter him with. He did well to get us the Edinburgh agreement on such favourable terms. This was our big chance and unfortunately fear, selfishness and ignorance managed to win.

Agree with these posts...

Talking to the No voters in my work the common theme is that they just don't think independence was worth the risk.

Precisely. I don't understand the comments that are being levelled at ordinary people who voted No yesterday. Yes, there were a lot of No voters that would never have voted Yes, no matter what the campaigns had said. These were the hard-Nos, and nothing changes their minds. However a lot of the genuine undecideds who eventually picked No had heard nothing but scare stories week after week, and the currency issue won't have helped our cause one bit. When they looked at their lot in life and realised things weren't too bad it is perfectly understandable why they might vote No. Hell, I saw signs outside polling stations yesterday saying "Vote NO - it's not worth the risk". We can't accuse the majority of these people of being selfish - most of them won't be wealthy and they simply don't want to risk losing what little they have. I don't blame them for that.

The only silver lining I can see is that now we will see how much "the vow" is worth...

In 1979 at least the Yes vote won!This much is worse. We've had a much higher turnout (making it more legitimate) and what looks like a big big win for No.