AS the dust settles from the referendum, it has revealed some remarkable political changes.

The parties of the losing side have emerged dazed but clutching an unexpected consolation prize in the form of surging membership, with the Greens and Socialists both tripling in size, and the SNP well on their way to following suit.

Responding to such sudden, profound change will be challenging, but it is a headache every other political party in the UK must envy.

Meanwhile, the winners on September 18 have every reason to fear rather than relish the future.

The polls suggest the LibDems will sink even lower in the public's estimation at next May's General Election.

The Tories will continue to bleed support to Ukip.

The defection of a second MP to Nigel Farage's anti-EU party feels like only the start.

And in Labour, with Ed Miliband still failing to click with voters after four years as leader, there is foreboding, worsened by rejection in former party strongholds in the referendum.

As we report today, Scottish Labour are now embarking on a review to improve their internal operations which will look at MP selection and one-member, one-vote for leadership contests.

If that sounds familiar, it is because Scottish Labour also had a review after the 2011 Holyrood election which resulted in what was promoted as far greater autonomy for the Scottish party.

However, as the referendum illustrated, Labour at Westminster still call the shots, with Gordon Brown and Douglas Alexander elbowing aside Johann Lamont in the final months.

Changing rules is not the same as changing a culture, and it is its myopic, introspective culture of compulsive squabbling and voter neglect that has long been Labour's problem.

The electoral mauling they now face in Scotland is very much of their own making.

With debates over devolution running hot across the UK, party loyalties in flux, a knife-edge election imminent and a possible EU referendum after it, we are entering a momentous period.

It is fortunate that the referendum has given Scotland such politically aware citizens.

That vote was only the beginning.