[letmein]

Good? Bad?

What will happen to the Union Jack?

"Potentially the most serious threat to the UK in its 310-year history moved a step closer to fruition as the Scottish National party swept to untrammelled power in the Scottish parliament, giving its leader, Alex Salmond, a mandate to hold a referendum on independence at the time of his choosing within the next five years.

The stunning result in Scotland " giving Salmond a working majority of nine at Holyrood " gave David Cameron a new constitutional headache as he saw off the introduction of the alternative vote for Westminster elections. The no campaign, of which Cameron was a vocal supporter, won the nationwide historic referendum on AV by an overwhelming margin of 68% to 32% on a 42% turnout.

In a presidential campaign Salmond turned round a Labour poll lead and swept through Scottish Labour's heartlands taking 69 seats, to Labour's 37. The SNP reached its majority by taking Kirkcaldy, the home turf of former Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown.

The stunning result in Scotland, caused by a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote there and a rudderless Labour campaign, led Salmond to announce he would be holding conversations immediately with Cameron to "lay down markers as to what this result, what this mandate, means in terms of Scotland's relationship with the United Kingdom".

He will call for specific transfers of power to Scotland in an attempt to assemble slowly a consensus for independence, leading to a referendum at some point after 2013.

Cameron said: "If they want to hold a referendum, I will campaign to keep our United Kingdom together with every single fibre I have." Despite the SNP's big win, polls showed most voters in Scotland oppose independence.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ict?intcmp=122