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SO how was your journey? We’re all on a journey these days, of course.

From X Factor hopefuls to A-listers emerging from rehab, we are all on the move, from this to that, from here to there.

In Scotland, these last few years, our journey has been at times exciting, at times excruciating, but mostly it’s been like driving from Westminster to Holyrood with two over-excited kids in the back.

Despite the squabbling, the debate has been fair and decent – partisans on both sides sincerely believe in their case and have put it with passion.

Those of us willing and wanting to hear both sides, however, soon realised neither would concede a fraction of an inch to their opponents.

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So the No side see only a bleak and terrible blackness rolling over an independent Scotland while Yessers insist all things will be bright and beautiful. A wise man – or, more probably, a wiser woman – said never trust anyone with all the answers because they don’t understand the question. Good advice but, here, both sides have all the answers to every question, even if one is black, the other white.

Anyway, we’re nearly there. Or at least we’re nearly somewhere because it is clear now, if it wasn’t before, that our journey’s end is not when the polls close on Thursday night.

This referendum is only a staging post on the road to another destination, whether independence or the mysterious Devo Max we’ve heard so much about but never actually met.

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Yes or No, how Scotland is governed is changing but, more importantly, how Scots are willing to be governed may already have changed.

Many of us – gulp – almost seem to have become interested in politics over the last few months and in how our elected representatives go about it.

That, apparently, has been a bit of a surprise for Better Together. It would appear they missed the thousands of Scots pitching up in community centres and village halls wanting to hear the debate but, more, wanting to be part of it.

With the baffling complacency that marked their campaign until exactly seven days ago, when a poll suggested they might be losing, they

languidly dismissed these meetings as Yes supporters talking to themselves.

They insisted that the silent majority of Scots, the sensible, risk-averse Scots, were sitting at home biding their time, nursing their Nos.

They really have to hope so but, if their supporters have been stuck in their house, then it’s their loss because the country has been on fire with argument and agreement, passion and reason.

Better Together have looked on with incredulity as Yessers insist that a little three-letter word can make everything right, deliver a fairer, richer, enlightened, engaged Scotland.

They have been encouraged, of course, by the SNP, who have never knowingly undersold the potential benefits of independence. Why would they?

Yes, their economic forecasts are so bullish that bulls are looking sheepish. Yes, their insistence that independent Scots can enjoy better public services and lower taxes makes little sense. Just like their claim that independence will mean we all get the government we vote for every time and, very possibly, the Cabinet will come round one Sunday and paint our kitchen.

But Scots are not mugs, Yes voters have not been conned by Alex Salmond. Most do not believe independent Scots will live beneath a cloudless sky but neither do they believe it will crash on our heads if we say Yes.

They believe that most of the obstacles and hellish scenarios raised by unionists – from currency, pensions and public spending to Europe, Nato and Trident – will be negotiated when they have to be. If not, an independent Scotland will have the nous to adapt, improvise and overcome.

Ultimately, they believe that Scotland’s decisions are better taken here than in Westminster, that we are a grown-up country and should be encouraged to act like one.

Of course, all the passion and engagement might disappear when the posters come down and badges get unpinned on Friday but hopefully not. More voices should be raised more often and our country will be better for it.

So that was the sunny side of the street and, on the other, we had Better Together, cowering in a doorway, shouting that a storm was coming.

Robert Louis Stevenson once said it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive and someone really should have told Alistair Darling and his strategists.Their campaign was a dismal, relentless offering and was clearly intended to be.

Better Together may still win this war of independence but they have lost the campaign.

If they win, they will win ugly and many Scots – including many No voters – will not easily forget the months of disheartening, attritional threats and warnings.

There was a positive case to be made for the Union but Better Together did not make it because, until very, very recently, they did not think they needed to.

Instead, they droned on about the risks, of how, of course, Scotland could be a successful independent country. But not really.

They believed a two-bob survey that suggested the referendum would be won by whoever promised us an extra £500 in our pocket.

That, as Whitehall civil servants helpfully informed us Jocks, could buy a lot of fish suppers.

That is not to say that the risks might not be real, that our economy might head for the rocks after Yes, that we may all be poorer in an independent Scotland, that a Yes vote might be a needless gamble when we already control so much from Holyrood and will soon control more.

But the scare stories were too much, too relentless, and, if this Union is a thing of value, surely its worth cannot only be measured in pounds and pence? Ultimately, the constant sounding of alarm bells may only have got Scots accustomed to the noise. The unionist campaign badly misjudged just how far respect for Westminster, Holyrood and politics generally has fallen, how disillusioned voters have become with the old way.

Until last Sunday, they blithely blamed narrowing polls on protest votes, as if a protest vote counts for less than any other.

Well, if the late swing to Yes is built on a protest vote, there is plenty to protest about.

From Margaret Thatcher and all her works to David Cameron’s millionaire ministers’ onslaught on the poor.

From Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the rest selling Labour’s soul to city spivs to Ed Miliband, an unconvincing leader of an uncertain party.

From tax cuts for the richest to benefit cuts for the poorest.

From the SNP talking like Labour and legislating like Tories.

From MPs’ expenses to MSPs’ mediocrity.

From the bankers’ rampage to the obscenity of food banks.

And on and on.

Offer people the chance to clean out the stables, vote for dramatic change in the hope of a dramatically different kind of politics and they decide to take it? Who could have predicted that?

During the last six hectic months in Scotland, the people have spoken, are still speaking and it is unlikely that they will shut up whatever the result on Friday morning.

This is the bit in election campaigns when newspapers like to come out for one side or another but, on this journey of ours, you don’t need the Sunday Mail to punch your ticket.

Katie Price, the model formerly known as Jordan and possibly the only celebrity not to have offered a view on the Barnett Formula or the unintended consequences of sterlingisation, said recently: “You may not always end up where you thought you were going but you will always end up where you are meant to be.”

Yes or No, Scotland is moving on to where we are meant to be.

And you know what? We’ll be fine.