The commentators                    22-09-14

...on the referendum fallout

It’s a pity that FKB sounds like one of Vladimir Putin’s secret services, because the Federal Kingdom of Britain is what the British now need. Otherwise, the United Kingdom will become an Untied Kingdom. To achieve this federal solution, we must create across the whole of Britain what Scotland has just magnificently rehearsed for us: a democratic, constitutional moment. It is insulting to the peoples of England, Wales and Northern Ireland to suggest, as David Cameron has done, that this can be achieved in a few months.
-Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian
A major reason why 44.7 per cent of Scots voted “yes” was because they wanted independence from the Westminster political class as much as from the rest of the UK. They, like the millions voting for Nigel Farage, are sick of a political class that promises one thing — on tuition fees, ending top-down reorganisations of the NHS and holding a referendum on Europe — but does another.
- Tim Montgomerie, The Times
Boris Johnson
Now is the time we should be talking about the future of Britain and the colossal potential of British business and British technology and British universities, and all the wonderful things that we British people are going to do together; and here is Alex Salmond back on the telly, only four days later, claiming that there needs to be some kind of re-run, and saying he still wants to get divorced. Why the hell?
- Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph
It was fascinating to find that nearly everybody in the media seems to think the wall is the Scottish border; some news takes 1,500 years to reach the metropolis. And we north-easterners have been banging on for decades about the unfairness of the Barnett formula, which guarantees £1,600 extra in public spending per Scottish head per year, so it’s nice to see the rest of England waking up to that one, too.
- Matt Ridley, The Times
Why don’t we Londoners join the game too? Let London be free, independent of the UK, a city state with its own flag, economy and priorities. If our campaign is compelling, non-Londoners will implore us not to leave, to be part of the family. Perhaps then they will stop hating and learn to love London, undeniably the “best place” in the world.
- Yasmin Alibhai Brown, The Independent
Apart from the twelve referendum splashes of the past two days, the subject has made a front-page lead on only five occasions this year:Yes, it's been busy with Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine, the rise of Ukip, sex scandals, the hacking trial, Mr Cameron's holidays, floods and heatwaves. But one would still expect the potential break-up of the UK  - or the liberation of Scotland, depending on your point of view - to be able to put up a better fight against the 30 house price splashes, the 25 on migrants and the 26 on Madeleine McCann. I stopped counting when I got to 60 soap opera and "reality TV" offerings.
- Wake us up before they go-go
A referendum miscellany Odds and ends from the campaign trail
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Comment digest courtesy of
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September 19
Scottish referendum
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Robin Williams
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