The process of recovery

For the Yes Vote Friday's result was equivalent to a death, it was an idea which died, and idea that's time may yet come but it was for that instant - no more.

To accept the result we have to accept the inevitable personal feelings we each have and deal with them through acceptance or we will stay stuck in a past every bit as toxic as the No Campaign's vision for Scotland.

The stages of any bereavement are:

1. Numbness and incomprehension
2. Denial
3. Despair
4. Anger
5. Acceptance

Every single Yes voter has to proceed along this pathway - some will reach acceptance more quickly than others. These 'acceptors' may appear to other Yes supporters stuck in stage's 3 or 4 as 'back sliders', uncaring of their anguish and anger, people who are letting 'No' away with it. Equally those who are at the acceptance stage must support the despairing and angry to find their own way through their personal maze and not tell them to 'grow up' and other such pathetic remarks I have seen posted on some threads.

Some will stay stuck in 'despair and anger'. It is this small group who will create future problems in any further Home rule / Independence campaign for the supporters of the Yes Campaign. They will seek retribution, vengeance and to humiliate the other side. They will justify verbal and possible physical violence because that is what the 'No Campaign' used, they will use the language of retribution talking of 'crushing opponents', sending them to their (metaphorical) 'graves', taking action to 'annihilate' them as political parties. This small group will not be able to accept any other process than confrontation when a conciliatory approach is what is required to seek the Yes Campaign's unifying aim - a better Scotland.

So we now play the 'Westminster game' but we seek to play it far better, pushing the Westminster players into ever tighter corners through continuous pressure to force them to fulfill on their 'published vow and promise'. In doing so the Elitist Westminster Group will not just be held to account by Scotland but suffer a reaction from the sense of being left behind and ignored now prevalent in their English electorate. A sense of being left behind and ignored which is seeing UKIP's electoral chances in 2015 in the ascendent. The need for Scotland to hold Westminster to account is being reflected in the rapid membership growth of the SNP. The Westminster elite is increasingly trapped between a rock and a hard place of their own construction. What we do not need is independence 'extremists' creating excuses to let Westminster wriggle out of their vows and promises to the Scottish electorate.

This is the core message Nicola Sturgeon is now sending out, 'hud yer wheesht', Westminster is heading down the road to destroy itself, we just need to keep giving it a shove, English MP's for English votes sees the purpose of Westminster as the UK Parliament undermined and in a constitutional quandary because when push comes to shove the UK Parliament has no legal or constitutional power to make this change and retain its current control on such a bill.

Such a move changes the nature of the UK Parliament, changes which are only the power of the original sovereign signatory parliaments to the Treaty of Union to agree and requires the recall of the English and Scottish Parliaments. The other option is for an English devolution bill but by giving such a parliament the same powers as Scotland and Wales the question arises - just what will there be for the UK Parliament left to do, as currently most of its time is spent on England only legislation?

We may have lost the battle on Friday 19th September but the war continues in our favour, we just need to 'hud our wheesht' and keep the heat on the Westminster machine until the pressure can no longer be resisted and it will crack.

Accept the result and keep working for a better Scotland.