SO – Scotland remains in the UK – for now. Already there will be many who voted No to independence regretting their decision.

Why? Because once a Yes vote had been delivered, all hands on the political pumps north and south of the border would have had to be employed on the complex task of disentangling Scotland from the UK. Afterwards Scotland’s future would have been in its own hands. But instead, the No victory has shoved broader constitutional change to the top of the agenda, dominated by calls for English-only votes for England.

Of course, there must be English-only votes for England. The so-called West Lothian question has been allowed to fester for too long. And the infamous Barnett Formula, estimated variously to deliver between 11.5 per cent and 19 per cent more spending per head of population to Scotland than the rest of the UK, must also be scrapped.

Trouble is that the leaders of all three main political parties assured Scotland the formula would be retained – a panicky last minute addition to the panicky ‘devo-max’ promise. How can they dishonour this without proving themselves to be as dishonourable as most Scots, and probably most of the rest of us, believe them to be?

Tasked with squaring this most firmlydrawn of circles, in the fleeting months before he quits Parliament next May, is William Hague, the darling of the Richmond Tories.

When he abandoned his Foreign Office post in the heat of battle Mr Hague probably foresaw a more tranquil run-in to retirement.

But he can take heart. Success will inscribe his name in history more gloriously than that of poor old Joel Barnett, lumbered forever with his unfortunate formula, though he disowned it long ago.

AMONG the (peripheral) facts thrown up in the Scottish referendum is that last year the North-East attracted less foreign investment than it has for a decade.

Given than Nissan is now a substantial part of the economic bedrock of the North-East, shared by other foreign owners of enterprises such as Cleveland Potash and the former British Steel, not to mention new arrival Hitachi, my view of foreign investment is deeply unfashionable and probably unpopular.

But I find it pathetic that a key barometer of our economic success is investment from abroad.

Do the young realise that less than a lifetime ago Britons went forth to build car plants, steelworks and railways abroad. We generated our own wealth and created it elsewhere.

If anyone had told our soldiers fighting in Korean in the 1950s that their grandchildren would be grateful for jobs provided in Britain by Korean firms they would have been classed as mad.

RECENTLY my wife and I popped into the Underskiddaw Church Room, at Applethwaite, near Keswick. It’s actually a small whitewashed chapel, beautifully maintained but in the porch a notice to blank out all: “North Lakes Food Bank…Our appeal this week, tinned meat, tinned fruit, UHT milk, rice pudding…”

All that beauty and yet…