Scotland has decided and the United Kingdom remains intact, which brings a hearty hurrah from me. Now the politicians who campaigned for independence need to accept that they lost by a reasonable margin and put the question to bed for a good number of years. Now Westminster needs to recognise that a significant proportion of Scots are not content with the status quo and make good its promises to allow further levels of devolution. Now all the politicians need to have sober and significant discussions about what this means for the rest of the UK and how we truly can be be better together.

And now the rest of us who live in this “sceptred isle” need to consider the example set by the massive engagement of the Scottish people in discussion of the matter and turning out in their droves to vote. We have a general election next year and, while Cameron and Clegg hold tenure for a few more months, it won’t be long before all of us in this nation, from furthest north to deepest south, are requested to engage with the political process and galvanise this democracy we claim to value.