A Pandora's Box has been opened.

The idea of all that fluffy constitutional stuff being settled in the wake of the historic No vote is for the birds. The debate rages on.

David Cameron was accused by opponents of shamelessly linking extra Scottish devolution with extra English devolution, knowing full well this would drive the famous tripartite pledge on Holyrood into the ground.

The SNP cried foul. Alex Salmond insisted the Scottish electorate had been "tricked" by the Prime Minister, who knew full well Ed Miliband could not agree to the linkage - because English Votes for English Laws (EVEL) would almost certainly mean any future Labour government would not have a majority in England and so could not deliver any of its plans for health, education, and so on south of the Border; a neat sleight of hand from a Conservative perspective.

Labour was also incandescent. Miliband aides angrily denounced Mr Cameron as a nasty piece of work who had slipped in this linkage; he would, they insisted, never be trusted again. Another neat political line as we head up the slope to the next General Election.

Amid the political heat, there was little light. Until, that is, Grant Shapps, the Conservative Chairman, popped up to underline the "vow" on Scotland.

His message was echoed shortly afterwards by Downing Street. There was no going back on the tripartite promise; that the Scottish devolution process was not contingent on the English devolution process. One senior No 10 source insisted the Scottish timetable would be adhered to "come what may", adding: "We are absolutely clear the PM is not reneging."

Today, Mr Cameron will be at Chequers with senior Tory backbenchers to mull over the so-called English Question. But he might have to hose them down after disabusing them of the idea there is a Scotland-England devolution linkage; that greater powers for Holyrood might have to come before any changes in England.

Interestingly, in August the Conservative leader, together with all other party leaders north and south of the Border, signed another pledge - to a stronger Scottish Parliament "while retaining full representation for Scotland in the UK Parliament". Full representation. This, of course, will not happen if EVEL is implemented.

Mr Shapps believes EVEL is not complicated; it is. What is an England-only law? Banning fox hunting south of the Border but little else. This is because any Bill that has a financial aspect - pretty much every one - will have an impact on Scotland through the funding formula. Thus, any Scottish MP has a right, indeed an obligation, to vote on such matters.

The devolution row will feed into the politics of the next battle: the General Election. Labour's Margaret Curran, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, will today announce a strategy of "regeneration" for the party in Scotland to try to win back the 40 per cent or so of Labour supporters who voted Yes.

With the SNP claiming a surge in membership, maintaining the image of the Westminster elite as the bogeymen of British politics will, they hope, lead to increased SNP representation in London. So Labour needs to re-engage, and fast.

And then there was Mr Salmond's eyebrow-raising assertion yesterday that a referendum was not the only route to independence; that there was a parliamentary one too. So, if the Nationalists put in their Holyrood manifesto that winning a majority would be regarded as Scottish voters giving a sovereign mandate to independence, Mr Salmond and his colleagues might get their prize in 2016 after all.