AT this point last year, it all seemed so simple.

The referendum, then nine months in the future, would be a straight choice between Yes and No, with the winner entitled to rejoice in victory and the loser obliged to slink away in defeat.

But 2014 had little time for conventional wisdom. The rules of politics, as we knew them, were shattered during Scotland's momentous year.

The SNP, Greens and Socialists of the Yes campaign didn't have time to dust themselves down after the referendum vote before being swamped with new members.

Meanwhile, the unionist parties, and Labour in particular, were left even less popular, bewildered by the shift that had taken place around them. They had won, but they had also lost.

Besides the winners and losers swapping fates, the other big surprise has been that politics is not boring after all, and that people were not, as assumed, helplessly allergic to it, or apathetic.

Offered a genuine, meaningful choice and an adult debate, Scots proved themselves to be a fully engaged, highly energised and switched-on citizenry.

The people's appetite had always been there - it had just been sickened by Westminster slop.

The year also proved extraordinary for this newspaper, which defied the industry trend by adding to its circulation after coming out in May in support of a Yes vote.

The new political rules are still being recast. How things will settle is unclear but, as we move into 2015 and the General Election campaign, a few trends are becoming much more obvious.

The SNP appears set for an historic result, with polls predicting the party will increase its tally of six Westminster seats far beyond its previous record of 11, which it won in the October election of 1974.

Indeed, many polls suggest the SNP will emerge in May with more MPs than Scottish Labour.

With four months in which the polls may narrow, projections should be treated with caution, yet such a landslide for the SNP does not seem wholly far-fetched.

It would be a devastating first judgment on Jim Murphy's leadership of the Scottish Labour.

Already in a wretched state, Murphy's party would curl itself into a foetal position if it lost Scotland to the SNP, and not peep out again until it was time to lose the 2016 Holyrood election as well.

A large cohort of SNP MPs could also herald a new era of politics at Westminster.

In the event of a finely balanced parliament, the SNP group in the Commons, almost certainly led again by Alex Salmond, could use its influence to extract more powers for Holyrood than the Smith Commission recommended last month.

As we report today, 60% of Scots already think a hung Westminster parliament in which the SNP held the balance of power would concede more than Smith planned.

However, the SNP should not get carried away. Game-planning is one thing, fantasy another.

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives would be in a rush to work with the SNP, even vote by vote, given the bruising experience of the referendum and its shopping list of demands, including the red-line issue of not renewing Trident. No government led by a party elected with a policy of maintaining the nuclear deterrent would be willing to disarm at the behest of a party which had, on a good day, one 10th of its MPs.

If the SNP is to secure more powers, the obvious place to start looking is the Smith Commission annex on "additional issues for consideration". This suggests Westminster and Holyrood turn next to human ­trafficking, asylum, justice reforms, health and safety, and abortion law.

This newspaper supports independence, and so we want to see far greater devolution to Scotland. But, in the absence of a second referendum, there is little point in pretending it can be delivered overnight in one glorious job lot.

The past year has also been memorable outwith politics, particularly for Glasgow.

The Commonwealth Games were a well-earned source of pride for the city and for the nation - while Glasgow's strength and compassion in the face of last week's tragedy in George Square were another mark of its unique, unyielding character.

After 2014, it is no longer possible to look to 2015 and say, as before, that it will be simple.

Better to expect a labyrinth of surprises.

But whatever it holds, we hope you enjoy it, and in 12 months we can look back together on it, better and wiser.