Yes Scotland has lost the referendum campaign

Terrific stuff from Cicero's Songs:

Yes Scotland have comprehensively lost the intellectual argument. They have been totally destroyed. From currency, to healthcare, to pensions every argument that they have put forward has been eviscerated. 

It is not that Yes Scotland has more emotion that bothers me- it is that they only have emotion. All rational considerations have been ditched and those who raise the perfectly valid questions of how - practically - Scotland can avoid serious problems, are dismissed without any attempt to answer the questions.

And he later says:

This referendum has been divisive and dangerous, and no matter who wins, it will be difficult to heal the wounds that have been created. 

Now, the process of healing must begin, but the Yes campaign should understand there has been emotion - and increasingly that emotion is abiding anger at the way that they have dismissed so lightly all the serious concerns that any rational observer would have at making such a big step.

Just to cheer you up, let me add a passage from Shuggy's Blog that I quoted yesterday:

This is not a national independence movement that requires any struggle or sacrifice but rather one that promises that nothing and everything will change. Keep the Queen, the open border, the currency - you'll hardly notice a thing, except your wallet becoming a bit fatter. 

It is the lie of painlessness and that it is so widely-believed is storing up trouble for the future for this country, regardless of the outcome. For who do you imagine the nationalists will blame if they're denied this decaffeinated national rebirth, or if they get it and then realise it isn't how they were told to imagine it? Certainly not themselves.