A sigh of relief this morning to see that Scotland is staying united even though I fully understand their desire to assert their rights more forcefully. Both as an Irish woman and someone who lives in Canada, the Scots influence in my life is strong. From scientific geniuses to great writers, poets, actors, singers and Billy Connolly the unique Scottish DNA has proven itself invaluable and irreplaceable.

There is also the forbidding side of the genus, the dour, narrow-minded religious that allowed the Scots for centuries to be the repressive tools of Empire when colonizing other lands. This dichotomy  in the national personality made it hard to predict how the vote would come out.

An alleged 85+% of the electorate – (what could be fairer than that) -cast their votes. The history and bloodlines between Scots and English are so intertwined back into the mists of time, cutting off from each other is impossible.  The shambles that would have arisen from bureaucratic separation would take years and billions to sort out. Now everyone knows where they stand – status quo or change and clearly almost 50% of the people want change in their relationship to the British system. Well-played Scottish voters. May it be a bloodless revolution.

And what will the English have learned from this near-disaster? Will they see that their first move has to be to change their attitude and come from a position of respect? To stop being such annoying prats to everyone outside their very small club? That Scots jokes are not that funny told with an English accent and are offensive and demeaning?

The English, let’s say Anglo Saxon, sense of superiority has been a source of amusement and bemusement all my life. The unhealthiest, twerpiest little English men I have met feel innately superior to the best of the Irish. It is to laugh.

I have been told I was a ‘vigorous hybrid’ – so much better than the rest of my race and expected to take that as a compliment. A dowager who had a life in Canada she could not have dreamed of in England once said to me ‘ aren’t you doing well for an Irish gel’. They just can’t help it. And some of my best friends really are English

So I think it is good for all of us that Scotland has thrown down the gauntlet and told them to wake up and mind their manners. The system they are holding up, an economy based on war and rape of the earth and oceans, cannot stand. Their class, gender and racial divisions are archaic and redundant and they have deep social problems.

All of the ills of Imperialism and Colonialism have now come to their shores, long after the booty and plunder has been spent. They need their best minds and passionate hearts to save the whole United Kingdom and not just its parts.

So much of my culture and value system was shaped by being an aboriginal of those islands. Of course I am rooting for them to succeed, to be able to embrace new boundaries and ideas and let their old school tie stop choking them. Observing them evolve is riveting.