One of Scotland's greatest writers once urged: "The Scottish members of parliament should therefore lose no time - not an instant - in uniting together in their national character of the Representatives of Scotland."
The comment was made by Sir Walter Scott in 1826, two years after a Claim of Right was issued by those in Scotland who believed the union wasn't working, Scotland was being misgoverned, and that whatever the initial aims of political union were, they weren't being satisfactorily fulfilled.
Scott never lived to see his "representatives" unite. Nor was he around to complain that what Scotland voted for, in 1979 - the creation of a deliberative national assembly - was denied under the pretence of a suspect democratic "majority".
Another Claim of Right was issued in 1988 and next week we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the consequences of that movement, when, in 1999, the Scottish parliament, along with the national assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, were formed.
A decade on since its creation, the Scottish parliament is now embedded, continually evolving and woven into the fabric of Scottish political life. Far from being a body of appeasement, it has become a driving force that shapes Scotland and its politics. Through its position of authority in the revamped constitutional map of the United Kingdom, it cannot be ignored by whatever party runs Westminster, now or in the future.
A 10th anniversary is simply too early to look back. Historians with a wider and longer perspective will do that. This is the point when the Scottish electorate should look ahead at what the parliament in Edinburgh means now and what it might come to represent in the future. On this, only one thing is certain - it won't stay the same. It was promised and delivered by the Labour Party, taken for granted and then lost by the Labour Party in Scotland. However, there is now an air of certainty that come May next year, it will be the Conservative Party with David Cameron as Britain's prime minister, which will rule the tier of UK government above the Scottish parliament. Sovereignty resides not in Edinburgh, but at Westminster, and Cameron will have to decide how he deals with Holyrood. Scotland, meanwhile, will have to decide how it views a potential decade and more of living with the Tories.
It has, of course, done this before during 11 years of Thatcherism and another seven under John Major. Through this period, Scotland continued to vote Labour and learn to live with defeat. Even as England threatens to swing back to Conservatism, it remains highly unlikely that Scotland will respond the same way again. Scotland sees socialism, community, society, through a different perspective. Instilling a new Tory psyche, even though the Conservatives won a majority of the popular vote in Scotland in the mid-1950s, is not so much a political option as a nightmare vision for most Scots.
The existence of the Scottish parliament and devolved power will, however, force Cameron to look north - not with Thatcher's sense of control, but with his eye on an evolving institution which he cannot ignore unless he wants to go down as the PM who broke the union. Downgrading the status of Scottish MPs, forcing them to abstain from Westminster business on issues where Holyrood holds devolved power, would create a parliament within a parliament in London.
And if the Scots felt locked out in terms of representation? Holyrood is there and waiting in a way that Thatcher never had to contend with.
Over the next decade, Labour too may need to adapt to Holyrood. Any re-runs of former appeals to be the protectors of Scotland, as the guardians of true opposition, could fall on deaf ears if the SNP succeed in securing a second term in government in Edinburgh. Indeed the success of the SNP under Alex Salmond freed the Scottish parliament from its role as a mostly family-friendly outpost of Labour in Westminster to one that, over the next 10 years, holds the prospect of engaging in constitutional conflict if the mistakes of Thatcherite years of mismanagement are repeated.
For the SNP, too, moving beyond their old electoral cry of "They're stealing ma scones" as they point to Westminster, will be crucial. On this anniversary, nationalists should ask where they would like Holyrood's parliamentary evolution to go. If the acquisition of new powers may one day make it difficult to gauge just what independence could add, would this be enough of a "country" to satisfy the SNP?
Regardless, a happy 10th birthday is in order. Difficult teenage years may lie ahead, but at its core the parliament represents Scotland's faith in the democratic process - and on this alone, any look to the future has to be an optimistic one.
