Winners

The Northern Echo: David Cameron

David Cameron: The Prime Minister will not go down in history as the Conservative and Unionist leader who lost the Union. The result saved his own job, and yesterday's rapid move to create a parliament where only English votes on English matters count will be popular. It will also strength his party's control of English affairs.

The Northern Echo: gordon-brown.jpg

Gordon Brown: He was seen as a brooding has-been who had led the country to the brink of bankruptcy, but he rediscovered his passion with a couple of barnstorming speeches that saved the union.

The Northern Echo: Ruth Davidson has already put forward proposals to tackle what she claims are 'failing' schools by giving parents an 'opportunity voucher'

Ruth Davidson: The Scottish Conservative leader looks very human and sounds unpatronising. She has been an unlikely star of the campaign.

Losers

The Northern Echo: Alex Salmond: Opinion polls success

Alex Salmond: The only casualty, and a surprise that he should step down so quickly. During the campaign, he proved himself to be an able, quick-witted politician who ran rings round his Westminster opponents. He moved the cause of Scottish independence and he gained 1.6m votes – a result that 12 months ago would have appeared good. But such were the expectations raised by the close polling of recent weeks, his ten point defeat looks like a failure. His departure, which looks quite noble given the way many politicians cling to their jobs, will help his party re-invent itself. If, as he said, there would not be another referendum for a generation, the defeat leaves the Scottish Nationalist Party without a purpose, until a new leader can provide one.

The Northern Echo: William Hague: has written to Adam Crozier

William Hague: Just as he's winding down from frontline politics, Mr Cameron throws Mr Hague the impossible task of answering the "West Lothian Question" – which has vexed British politics since it was first posed in 1977 – in only a few weeks. Can he come up with a way in which only English votes count on English issues within a British government?

The mainstream parties Some Conservatives were shocked when parts of the North-East rejoiced at Margaret Thatcher's death last year, but the referendum campaign has revealed that large swathes of Scotland still regard the party as nasty, with the bedroom tax being the most recent manifestation of this nastiness.

Scotland should be totally Labour, yet the collapse of Labour's core support let in the SNP, and even though the Union was saved, Labour's strongest areas, like Glasgow, voted "yes". For decades the NHS has been Labour's strongest card, and yet the SNP dared to campaign on saving it from them.

And as for the LibDems, there is little evidence anyone was listening to them.

The huge "Yes" vote was partly about disillusionment, it was partly about doing something new and fresh that did not involve the three mainstream parties. Mr Salmond cleverly pitched "Team Scotland" against "Team Westminster" – and nearly pulled off a shock victory. The next opponent for Team Westminster is Team Farage in May when Ukip will be employing the same plague-on-all-your-houses tactics.

Both winners and losers 

The Northern Echo: An iconic landmark that could rival The Angel of the North (pictured) will be built in Sutton Manor

The North-East: In all England, the North-East had the most to fear from an independent Scotland. If another Hitachi had been looking to invest somewhere in Europe, would it have chosen County Durham or would it have plumped for an independent Scotland just 100 miles away offering huge sweeteners and hugely reduced corporation tax?

Yet Scotland is still getting increased powers and London shows little signs of relinquishing its dominance of England. The North-East remains squeezed in the middle – unless it can shout up for itself.

The Northern Echo: Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband campaigning in Preston today. Photo: PA

Ed Miliband: The Labour leader showed himself to be a brave performer on some unruly streets and he did, eventually, get enough of the Labour vote out to save the Union – although it does look as if that dinosaur from the past, Gordon Brown, baled him out.

The Northern Echo: Disaster banner ballot-box.jpg for the homepage

Democracy: Who would ever have thought there would be 86 per cent turnout in British elections again? It shows that the British people, once energised, do care about their politics. The passionate enthusiasm for debate was so refreshing – if only we could bottle it and uncork in May when cynicism about the General Election campaign sets in.

Yet there's the rub. This was a single, black-or-white clearcut issue. You were either for Scottish independence or against it. A General Election campaign is far more nuanced where the parties have to grapple with grey issues, like the amount of private involvement in the NHS or the amount of freedom to be given to schools. Will the British public be prepared to engage in such numbers in complex debates, or do they only get involved when they can shout "yes" and "no" at each other?