Now the battle is over - the Scottish regional government has conceded the issue for at least a generation - the aftermath will be interesting. In a last-minute panic when the vote seemed to be on a knife edge, Prime Minister Cameron promised a package of new measures to entrench Scotland's autonomy within the U.K., conferring considerable financial benefits. Now the battle has been won, everybody will be watching to see whether these promises are fulfilled. If they are not, there will be anger in Scotland; if they are, there will be resentment in England.

In the longer term, though, it is important that lessons are learned from this turbulent episode in British history. One problem the U.K. has is that, unlike most of the world's leading economies, it has only one real center. No one can doubt that London has been a hugely successful financial center; but many people believe that the peripheral areas of the country (which include the three subordinate nations) have not really benefited from this. The U.K. government is now considering a more federal structure for the country, giving more power to the English regions as well as to the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to correct this impression of central neglect. In particular, to hold a country together it is vital to achieve a fair distribution of resources throughout its constituent parts. It was not resentment against the English that drove the Scots to the brink of separation, it was resentment against an over-mighty and neglectful London.

Though an uncomfortable and disruptive process, I believe (as an Englishman living in Scotland) that it was a necessary one. Discontents cannot be swept under the table and ignored, or they will break out all the more painfully later. Every now and then it does a country good to look hard at itself and consider what it is and what it wishes to be. We in Britain have now done that, and when things have calmed down I believe we will be the stronger for it.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:http://www.jhzsvip.com/opinion/timcollard.htm

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