“The result and the turnout were very important”

EDINBURGH-BORN former Partido Popular Councillor and Director of the Department for European Citizens in the Balearic Government, Kate Mentink was “very pleased”  with yesterday’s result.
“Iam extremely pleased because the ‘no’ camp won with a clear 10 point gap but also because the turn out was so high, around 85 percent, some 3.6 million people and Scots should be proud of themselves for having taken the matter so seriously.
“But now, there are two important things the Scots have to sort out and quickly.
“The first is to restore social unity again and get rid of the aggression which built up between the two camps in the run up to Thursday’s referendum, neighbours need to get back to living happily alongside each other, families need to reunite.
“And secondly, put the referendum behind them and set about operating as part of the union.
“Scotland has to now work on negotiating more powers and responsibilities and I thought that  Alex Salmond would have been the  best person to do that while Wales and N. Ireland can also call for more powers too and, the English as well.
“England is the only country  in the union which does not have its own parliament and I can see things changing.
“Yesterday, was the first day in what in the mid to long term is going to be a very different United Kingdom.
“What we’ve seen happen in Scotland is going to become very significant in the long run, much is going to change, we are going to see a new Britain emerge out of all this which, from the view of the English, will benefit them.
“However, London, or rather the government can not ignore that fact that 1.6 million people in Scotland did vote in favour of independence, so it is going to have to honour its promises and come up with what it promised Scotland if she stayed in the union.
“Remember, they’ve got a general election in May of next year and then Scotland goes to the polls in 2016, so the time frame is quite tight, hence why I said I thought Salmond would have been the best person  to take care of the negotiations with London, but obviously that is not going to be.
“He  was  the elected First Minister of Scotland and had made no indication what so ever of resigning if he failed to win independence for the country. Obviously, he has changed his mind but  his departure will only leave a power vacuum and I don’t see anyone in the SNP capable of filling his boots right now,” Mentink added.