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Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom, but the United Kingdom will be changed forever.

No gained a clear victory by 55.3% to 44.7% with a record turnout of over 84.5%. Twenty eight of Scotland’s thirty two local authority areas voted No.

Independence is now off the agenda for a generation - and maybe longer.

Yet the result is a victory for both sides. Why so? Because without the referendum the proposals for enhanced devolution would not have not been so ambitious. The SNP will argue that, while independence was their goal, the second prize of a stronger Scottish Parliament was worthwhile.

Attention will now turn to the UK timetable for change, announced by the three unionist parties. And since its announcement there have been rumblings from back bench MPs that little attention has been paid to the consequences of the proposals for the rest of the UK. More positively, there is, some would say, at long last, recognition amongst the “Westminster elite” that it must move towards a more decentralised structure in England too.

The process for achieving a synthesis of the three parties' proposals for further devolution will have to be swift. David Cameron has already announced the appointment of Lord Smith of Kelvin, who chaired the 2014 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, to lead the process.

Scottish Labour will have to give serious consideration to upping its own lukewarm proposals which failed to even match those of the Conservatives. For certain though, there will be agreed proposals on increased control of taxation and welfare, proposals which will be included in party manifestos for the May 7th 2015 election.

Scotland needs to be brought back together. Fought over three years, the campaign has been passionate and sometimes divisive. In moving forward, the unionist parties need to extend the hand of friendship to those who supported independence, the SNP, the Greens and parts of civic Scotland, offering them the opportunity to make a constructive contribution to the discussion over enhanced devolution.

And the 'Holyrood elite' must harness the energy and the ideas generated by the thousands of Scots who have been politicised by the campaign. Politics is, after all, for people.

You can find this article and others on the Pagoda PR News&Blog section of their website, including the below infographic with a timeline for new powers: