Scotland stays with the U.K., and has a pint to heal the divide
EDINBURGH - In the end, the pollsters got it wrong. But the bookies, who always bet on Scotland staying in the U.K., got it right.
It's not a surprise to Edinburgh's cabbies, who say passengers often confided they were hiding their real voting intentions because of what others might think of them.
One cabbie, we'll call him "David", voted for independence. But he was afraid to tell his wife, who voted against it.
"I said to her I was going to vote 'no', because if I had voted 'yes' and everything went wrong, she would have been giving me [a lot of prattle]," laughed "David," affirming that his wife would have blamed him.
But Alex Salmond, who led the losing campaign, was brutally honest with his country and with himself.
"I accept that verdict of the people and I call on all of Scotland to follow suit in accepting the democratic verdict of the people of Scotland," he told his countrymen.
And then he quit. "For me as a leader, my time is nearly over."
For Prime Minister David Cameron, the testing time continues. He promised sweeping new tax and spending powers to Scotland if it stayed in the U.K. Now he has to deliver.
"We now have a chance, a great opportunity to change the way that British people are governed and change it for the better," said Cameron.
But can the wounds of this fractious campaign be healed?
There was a hint at a pub we visited this week where the were selling 'Yes' and 'No' beer. The 'Yes' beer was winning, said pub owner Bob Shields. But ...
"What we are finding is when the 'Yes' beer runs out, they just start drinking the 'No' beer," Shields said.
The healing has begun.
