Referendum Results

I was going to write this yesterday but I just couldn't bring myself around to it.

I am so disappointed with the referendum results, I really, really wanted an independent Scotland.

I stayed up all night to watch the results, apart from an accidental three hour nap on the couch. When I was woken up at the back of five in the morning it was looking bad, I couldn't watch it anymore. I heard my friend Vikki playing her fiddle in the kitchen and went through to join her, away from the tv, away from the results. Martha joined on her fiddle and Magnus on the guitar. It felt like the right thing to do, through the final hours of the count, to play tunes together. Whenever I felt homesick at University or in Amsterdam I used to just sit and play through Shetland tunes, they always brought me back to home.

It was incredibly therapeutic in those bleak hours of Friday morning; I felt like I was losing a promising future but at least we could sit together playing the music of our home and our culture. Through the despair, moments of hope kept surging to the surface. Not hope that the referendum would suddenly swing to a yes, it was too late for that. But that there are so many people who want change and I'm not just talking about the Yes voters. I believe there are plenty who voted no who still demand change from Westminster.

I suppose yesterday I felt a mixture of disappointment at the results and an anger at Westminster. This vote was meant to be 'Scotland decides' but they couldn't stop telling us what to vote for, of course they wanted us to vote no, they wanted to keep us within their rule, but it felt like they believe Scotland doesn't have the capabilities to decide, that we needed Westminster to tell us in the end what we really should do.

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I decided to go see something at the cinema, because you know Mareel is awesome and has a great cinema, and also because I felt so antsy, like I should do something but I had no direction as to what to do.

We went to see the next film that was on and it so happened to be Pride.

It was the perfect film for yesterday, I say yesterday I should say that such an inspiring film is a must for anyday. Really, you should see it, it's about a group of gay activists who establish the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) in the 80s during the miners strike. Generally the film is about the dialogue between LGSM and a small mining village in South Wales and how both groups work together and help one another. It really is beautiful and it is based on a true story.

After seeing that film I felt a surge of faith in the power of individuals to make changes on a national scale.

We can't stop now, we can't stop demanding what we want. I don't know yet what is going to happen, where we are going next, but there is a momentum that has been built up to the referendum, a hope we have in the future and a drive to change things for the better. We have to keep going.

Westminster has got what it wants, it still has Scotland. So let's make them listen to us, and not just us, if we are still part of this union can we then not unite with those in England, Wales and Northern Island. Stand together and share the changes we want. I don't want the privatisation of the NHS, I don't want to keep Trident, I want better share of wealth, the UK is currently one of the most unequal developed countries, this has to change.

I still want independence, but if that is not possible now then let us work with the rest of the UK, let us make a difference with greater numbers and a louder voice.

Let's make Westminster wish they had never asked us to stay.