HISTORY is written by the winners, according to the old truism.

Not the history of the independence referendum. Not so far, at least. The SNP has enjoyed considerable success in implanting its story of the campaign in the public consciousness while the winners have struggled to be heard. The Nationalist narrative is clear. The referendum has given life to a new age of democratic and political engagement in Scotland. Despite being pitted against the formidable apparatus of the British state, the Yes campaign came within a whisker of victory by giving voice to a clamour for radical change. It failed only because people were "tricked," as First Minister Alex Salmond put it, by promises of more powers for Holyrood and frightened, the older generation especially, by Westminster's scaremongering. A referendum process characterised by mature democratic debate, the argument goes, has empowered and enriched Scotland. The result was a bitter disappointment but the country has been transformed.

The No side sees it quite differently. In their narrative, a decisive majority of Scots rejected the SNP's sketchy and implausible economic prospectus. Faced with a noisy and often intimidating Yes campaign, people across the country stoically endorsed the advantages of remaining in the UK. They saw through the Nationalists' cynical and dishonest claims about threats to the NHS and fantastical claims about Scotland's untapped oil wealth. They now want politicians on all sides to put the referendum behind them and get on with the business of running the country.

There are lots of reasons why the first version is taking root in people's minds. Mr Salmond's well-timed resignation announcement the afternoon after the night before has ensured the SNP has remained the story this week. Mr Salmond himself, his sure-fire successor Nicola Sturgeon and the candidates fighting to replace her as deputy leader have all used platforms to tell their story of the referendum.

No campaigners, meanwhile, vacated that particular field. David Cameron moved instantly from the referendum to fighting the looming General Election. His focus has been putting Labour on the spot by talking about English votes for English laws. Labour decamped to Manchester to indulge in its favourite conference-time activity: infighting. The party's failure to secure a No vote in the heartlands of Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire has sparked a bout of briefing against Johann Lamont's leadership. It has also put Labour on the defensive. The main message from Margaret Curran MP, shadow secretary of state for Scotland, and others has been the need to reconnect with the large minority of Labour supporters who voted Yes.

The SNP's success has put it on the front foot in the new debate about devolving more powers to Holyrood. Although Lord Smith of Kelvin's commission was established to reconcile competing proposals from Labour, the Conservatives and the LibDems, it is the SNP's demands which have grabbed the headlines. The details of a new Scotland Bill will not be known until the end of the year but Ms Sturgeon is already positioning herself to argue, as surely she will, that whatever emerges is wholly inadequate and a betrayal of voters who put their faith in the No parties' home rule vows.

Astonishingly, then, the week after the referendum was lost and its leader resigned has proved a good one for the SNP. And that's without mentioning the party's membership has more than doubled.

It cannot last, the downcast winners are muttering with a shake of the head. Unionist MSPs believe the hangover will finally hit the Nats when they see there is no realistic possibility of a fresh referendum, when people embrace the new devolution package, and when those new SNP members turn out to be vanguards of the so-called "45" movement hellbent on dragging the party towards the electoral wastelands of the hard left. It sounds like wishful thinking. In a perfectly-pitched speech announcing her candidacy for the top job on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon revealed an acute understanding of all those pressures. And her trump card was this: she left no-one in any doubt she actually wants to run the country, not just petition for independence. That should worry her opponents more than anything.