#indyref - It's BEHIND us (but was EVEN BETTER than a pantomime!)

Any radical politics has to 
have a sense of what is possible, 
to push it as far as it can, 
to understand timescales 
and how these dovetail with strategy. 
And critically it has to 
understand the political culture 
beyond its own boundaries ... 

Gerry Hassan: Indyref - 12 hard truths. Scotland on Sunday, 7 December 2014 

Gerry Hassan's article in today's Scotland on Sunday is one of the best pieces of writing I've read in the past couple of weeks (admittedly, most of the reading I've done in that period has been repeated, detailed reading of a pantomime script, but still.) I think what Gerry Hassan is saying here is that the referendum, about 3 months ago, is now BEHIND US! Oh, yes it is!

I have not said very much so far about the referendum (I politically-restricted myself, for a variety of reasons, for most of 2014). So here goes .... 

I was YES voter, who did so with some appreciation of the risks (short-term, and otherwise) of independence, and with no illusions that the Scotland which might have been called into existence would escape many of the ills found in most nation states (despite the claims from some that "voting yes" would remove many of them in some mystical fashion). 

I voted YES tactically, almost. The notion of "country" means a lot less to me than the ideas of "world" and "community" (the latter of which means to me "town" and "county"). I am entirely agnostic about how communities choose to organise themselves into bigger units: some form of federalism, at European level and/or UK or Scottish level would be my preference, with the arguments about which form is best a matter of (hopefully) pragmatic, political and constitutional debate. 

One thing I am certain of , though, is that the UK (its government, both houses of its parliament, the scale of its public and private sector corporations, its failure to properly structure and regulate markets, etc, etc, etc) is entirely unsatisfactory in terms of social justice,f fairness and (increasingly) personal freedom, and it needs major reform (in order to remove a huge impediment to the quality of life in Orkney (and the other communities of Scotland), and the other members of its family of nations (if that is what the UK is). This would also be good for Europe and the world.

Although the #indyref process (campaign, ballot and result) was (in different ways, at different points within the process) painful, difficult, joyful and valuable to every individual who engaged with it (and to each of our communities) we need to move on: either to more persuasive arguments for independence (or some other consitutional change), in the hope of avoiding some near-opposite of those things, or worse.

One thing is sure, though, everything *has* changed, surely, and not necessarily for the worse.

PS: If anyone would like to call me a nationalist, I will object, and suggest the less-abusive term "insular person" (falling for ever short, as I must, of the ideal attitude of  "being parochial" - I stole that joke! Oh yes, I did!)