WHILE the Yes campaign obtained 44.7 per cent of the votes cast, on the turnout (84.59 per cent) that equates to only 37.8 per cent of the registered electorate.

Allowing for the fact that three per cent of the eligible population did not register to vote the reality is that only 36.7 per cent of the adult Scottish population cast a vote in favour of separation.

David Cameron was spooked by a rogue poll. He panicked and made a rash promise which he may not be able to deliver.

His intervention was completely unprincipled given that we had been told that devo-max was not an option in this poll. To what extent, if any, this influenced the outcome we will never know.

The Prime Minister has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. If his nerve had held, we would have woken up last Friday to a comfortable majority against independence, even if the result might perhaps have been a little closer.

The question would have been settled for a generation. Instead we have a vote which the separatists will always claim to have been tainted, leaving them to campaign for another bite at the cherry. More worryingly, the Prime Minister may just have precipitated a British constitutional crisis.

Sean Lynch,

Portencross Road,

West Kilbride.