The Queen is right to focus on the pain caused by the Scottish referendum

Division and reconciliation were the themes of the Queen’s Christmas Message  this year (full text below). She started mentioning the Josefina de Vasconcellos‘s 1977 statue Reconciliation, which is now in Coventry Cathedral. She then went on to other examples of conflict and reunion from the First World War to Northern Ireland. And then the unfinished business of the Scottish independence referendum…

“In Scotland after the referendum many felt great disappointment while others felt great relief, and bridging these differences will take time.”

She’s right. All too many unionists in London think of the Scottish debate as being over, a closed book. This is certainly the view of the Cameroon high command.  But the pain caused by the referendum debate is real and ongoing: it divided friends and families. I know people who say they have received half as many Christmas cards as they normally do because they’ve lost so many friends as a result of this divisive referendum, which descended into such acrimony towards the end.