It was the day that was supposed to resolve Scotland’s constitutional future forever, or so pundits had claimed. Scotland would reject independence in great numbers. Their very raison d’etre defeated, the Scottish National party would be consigned to irrelevance. The union would be safe for a generation or longer.

This is politics according to the “Very Serious People” of the commentariat: dramatic and lasting challenges to the prevailing political consensus are treated as impossible, absurd, or childish fantasies. But we now know that what was supposed to happen in Scotland a year ago – when far more Scots voted for independence than was originally predicted – did not come to pass.

The SNP is determined to re-run the independence referendum when it believes there is an opportune moment

The narrative that democracy is in permanent decline across the western world – falling voter turnout, dropping party membership, general disengagement – was shown to be reversible. One in 50 Scottish adults have joined the SNP, voter turnout surged, Scotland became deeply politicised as a country, and the SNP went from six Westminster seats in 2010 to winning 56 in May, nearly extinguishing all of its rivals.

But Scotland is still rushing for the exits. Indeed, the SNP is determined to re-run the independence referendum when it believes there is an opportune moment: expect Nicola Sturgeon to keep telling the prime minister that he lives on “borrowed time”.

Support for independence has always been mistakenly portrayed as Braveheart-style nationalism. I do not think that my SNP-voting English uncles in Edinburgh are Scottish nationalists. It is part of a general revolt against political elites across the western world which manifests itself in fearful ways (like Ukip) or optimistic ways (like Podemos in Spain): disillusionment with an unjust social order; anger at the Tories’ legacy; and despair with a Labour party that vacated its progressive role and lined up with the Conservatives in a campaign of fear.

Much debate has centred on whether a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party – itself a product of the same sort of political revolt as the SNP – can change the dynamics in Scotland. It is difficult to understate how angry many ex-Labour voters are. The SNP is polling around 60% for next May’s Holyrood election; Labour is on about a third of that. The idea that that can be turned around in eight months is absurd.

Anecdotally, the reaction to Corbyn’s victory among some ex-Labour voters in Scotland has been along the lines of “well done on that, wish him the best of luck, hope he can work with the SNP”. In other words, they have emotionally severed themselves from Labour. Some make a distinction between Labour at the national level, and Scottish Labour. Others have a different perspective: it could just be that Labour has come home to them. Certainly, Labour needs to grovel before the people of Scotland, and work to win back its deeply alienated support.

Scotland is running out of patience with Tory rule. Unless Labour can convince Scotland, then independence is surely an inevitable “when” rather than an “if”. And if so, Britain’s elite will have caused such alienation among its own people, that a chunk of them will opt to leave. That surely remains the lesson a year on.