Dave Watson sees the prospect of a positive outcome for social justice in Scotland

While Scotland divided on the route to change, there was a clear consensus that a fairer Scotland is possible. The big question is, are the politicians up for the challenge and able to turn their rhetoric into action?

The posters are coming down, but the unprecedented level of political engagement won’t go away as the democratic genie has been let out of the bottle. Politics became an acceptable subject for conversation in workplaces and pubs, facilitated by traditional media and old style meetings, as well as social media in its many forms. Of course, it wasn’t all positive. People with a cause can sometimes close down debate with their unwillingness to see any other point of view, but the norm was real debate and more analysis of contemporary Scotland than we have ever seen before.

UNISON decided not to support either campaign, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have a view. Our Fairer Scotland and other papers challenged both sides. The degree of focus and support for public services during the campaign was welcome. People made it very clear that they value public services; they want more investment not more cuts; they reject privatisation and they demand that public services remain in public hands. They also want a fairer and more equal society.

For the political parties, it was all a bit confusing. Significant numbers of Labour supporters voted ‘yes’ and similar numbers of SNP supporters voted ‘no’. Both will face big challenges and opportunities in the months ahead.

The new SNP members are not likely to have joined because they support the core neo-liberal economic policies in the White Paper. As Ewan Morrison put it: ‘The Yes camp has created an illusion of a free space in which everything you’ve ever wanted can come to pass – overnight’. Those aspirations don’t match the risk analysis of the SNP hierarchy, as the currency issue most notably highlighted, and new members will quickly become disillusioned if there is not a significant change of direction.

Scottish Labour can congratulate itself on the result, but it’s left with a massive hangover. Gordon Brown may well have injected some much needed passion into the No campaign, but talk of change is undermined every time Ed Balls opens his mouth. The risks of independence sounded a bit thin to those who have little to risk and this is reflected in the ‘yes’ vote in areas like Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, West Dumbarton and Dundee. The big challenge for Labour is to make tackling inequality the central objective of their policy in 2015 and 2016. Labour needs to be radical in its response, campaigning as insurgents and not as part of the political establishment. It remains to be seen if all its senior politicians are up for that approach.

Unions and other civil society organisations will now help to bring Scotland together and press for radical change. We will expect that the promises of more powers made by the main parties in Better Together will be delivered upon and a constructive approach to this from the Scottish Government would do them credit. UNISON outlined its approach in our Fairer Scotland – Devolution paper and I would argue that the referendum result indicates broad support for this sort of radical change. It is ironic that Labour, as the party that delivered devolution, should start this process with the least radical proposal. It can, and should, recover from that position.

The referendum has also sparked a wider debate about constitutional change across the UK and in particular, England. This won’t be sorted by a quick political fix. The lesson from the referendum campaign is that it needs to give people the opportunity to shape the way they are governed. However, in all this constitutional debate we should remember that the real question is how new, or indeed existing powers, are to be used for the benefit of working people. Powers have to be deployed for the purpose of delivering a different type of economy that works for the majority of working people.

An early opportunity In Scotland will come on 15 and 18 October with the STUC and Poverty Alliance conference and rally as part the Challenge Poverty Week, when union members from across Scotland are coming together to say it’s now time to create a just and fairer Scotland.

The lasting legacy of this referendum campaign should be the broad political consensus across Scotland on the need to create a fairer, more equal society. If we can achieve real progress on that issue, then the time and effort so many Scots put into the referendum will have been worthwhile.

Dave Watson is the Head of Bargaining and Campaigns at UNISON Scotland.