Although I will be sorry to see it happen, I do think that independence will eventually come. The biggest problem with this referendum was, to use use the marriage metaphor, one partner walking out of the door with nowhere to go. It was the uncertainty, coupled with Salmond's whitewashing of the crucial political and practical difficulties, that I think persuaded many to vote with the head, perhaps even if the heart said otherwise.

If a Scottish government could gain an irresistible mandate to negotiate independence then I think it would have to happen. The difficulties would have to be negotiated and thrashed out, and only then presented in a referendum so that people would know what they were actually voting for. Only in those circumstances do I think that independence might be obtained, and have a chance of working.