Editorial: 24 hours is a long time

WHAT a difference a day makes. Thursday night the Scottish referendum appeared to be very much undecided and Alex Salmond was riding high. Yesterday afternoon, Scotland was firmly part of the union again and Salmond had gone.  A day is a long time in politics. But like him or not I do not believe that he should have stepped down. Scotland needs him more than ever because there are tough negotiations ahead. But afterall he did stake his political career on independence. He secured 1.5 million votes for the cause of independence in Scotland and  he ran a very successful campaign. But it wasn´t enough. The SNPwon big in Glasgow and Dundee but they failed to win in areas which are SNPheartlands. But taking this all into account Salmond is needed now in Scotland more than ever. He is probably one of the greatest political operators in the land. Scotland is also a divided country and needs strong leadership so that the healing process can take place. The referendum result was  a major setback for the SNP. But Scotland can feel proud of its referendum and the way that the whole campaign was conducted. I suspect that Salmond, when the Sunday Times put his campaign two points ahead in the polls, thought that it would be Prime Minister David Cameron going this week. In the end it was him. Politics is a nasty game. But sometimes you need to stay and clean-up the mess which someone will say you caused.