Even if you hope that the Scots choose (choose!) to stay with England and Wales and Northern Ireland (and the Cornish :D), this piece by Irvine Welsh is an essential expression of what’s thrilling about the Scottish vote, which is that it represents a vindication of something true and real and powerful about the democratic principle. If the Scots choose to stay, it feels as if ‘politics’ will go back to process, to back and forth, to the channeling of imagination through a frame that, no matter how real the consequences, can’t help from being weighed down by its similarity to American idol. I don’t think that the Scots need to leave to feed this more expansive, imaginative, open idea of what democracy can be. But being given the opportunity to think more openly about how to organize society–aye, there’s the rub.