A panel of experts including historian Tom Devine, academic Mona Siddiqui, singer/songwriter Karine Polwart and novelist William McIlvanney outline their views on the events of the last few days and what lies ahead...

Leading academic Sir Tom Devine called for the Scottish Parliament to investigate the part played by the BBC in the independence referendum amid ongoing criticism of the broadcaster's alleged perceived bias against the Yes campaign.

The Scottish historian said that only politicians could hold the BBC to account and that questions over their editorial stance in the run up to the vote had to be answered.

Devine was responding to calls from the crowd expressing their lingering dissatisfaction over what they felt was biased treatment of campaign spokesmen and politicians.

One woman said: "The BBC interfered with the democratic process. They should have given a balanced view, and they did not. I watched the BBC every day and what I saw was completely untrue." Another member of the audience said that there had been a "complete breakdown of trust", while anger was directed at political editor Nick Robinson.

A show of hands taken of the 400-strong crowd found almost unanimous support for the claim.

Devine said: "The only way to deal with this, and obviously it's wonderful that so many people have complained, but I think that some of my colleagues have said that that's not going to have the 'Exocet' effect, because for years I've been complaining about Radio Scotland being a national humiliation.

"I think that, partly in order to keep the pot boiling, and more fundamentally to give people a resource to complain about this, this must be immediately debated in our Scottish Parliament.

"And also that the Scottish Parliament, through its committee structure, should establish an inquiry, and also call witnesses, including some of the people who have been named tonight, so that we can get this into the public domain."

He added: "The BBC does not scare easily. But parliamentary inquiries do scare it."

Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at Edinburgh University and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Thought For The Day said: "When I heard the result I was relieved, rather than happy, by the vote. I was still cautious about what that meant. One of my concerns was that the debate had become so polarised that people on the Yes side knew exactly what Yes meant while people on the No side knew exactly what No meant, while many of us were in between and understood that there was merit in both sides and that all of us really wanted to know, 'how is Scotland going to move forward with this? For me, it turned quite nasty in the last couple of weeks. Not just what was happening in terms of the fear, not just in terms of what the No side were saying, but because the Scotland I had lived in for years suddenly seemed to become quite unpleasant.

"For the first time in my time here I was being asked to commit to something, to think about identity, to think about belonging and about home and I was thinking about that quite seriously. My only concern is that I don't want what has been promised to Scotland to be stalled by internal wrangling that's going to happen in Westminster, because the Scottish questions that this debate has been about cannot now become an English question with the Scottish question put on the back burner."

Novelist William McIlvanney, one of Scotland's leading writers, said: "I suppose that many people will be happy because they voted No, and so they should. They won fair and square. You'll forgive me if I'm holding a kind of one-man wake. Because I voted Yes. And I'm not a Scottish Nationalist, I'm a socialist. But that's a bit these days like saying you have leprosy. Folk tend to move out of range in case it's catching.

"But the reason for me is that I think British politics is dead in the water. I think a certain woman, I shall not name her lest she appear, who kept her horizons in her purse, kind of intimidated the rest of Britain.

"I have always voted Labour in the past, but I cannot find the Labour party any more. In voting Yes, it was not some manic tartan sense of self that made me do it. I thought it would help the rest of the UK and deliver serious politics in this country, because, as far as I can see, it ain't going to happen in my lifetime.

"So I voted from that point of view. To stop being disenfranchised. I think that Scotland has been disenfranchised for some years now. The impact of the vote is swallowed up by the home counties.

"And that's why I'm sad. I respect those who voted No, and I'm glad they are happy, but I will not be happy until we find a way to validate politics in this country again. Not just in Scotland, but in Britain.

"There is a need for the voice of the people on the ground to be heard and I thought that this was one way to do it.

"I don't think that this chance is over yet, but it is stymied. So anything I do from now on, will be to find a way to reinvigorate not just Scottish politics, but British politics."

Scottish singer-songwriter Karine Polwart said: "I was a Yes voter and a Yes campaigner, so obviously I'm disappointed and a little bit shocked at the difference between the percentage points. If I was honest I was steeled to the possibility of a No vote, but I didn't expect it to be a margin of 10%.

"Nevertheless, my own involvement in the past 18 months or so, both campaigning to get people involved in a referendum in a non-partisan way and being a Yes campaigner, has been one of the most inspiring things I've been involved in, in my life.

"My Yes was a green Yes, it wasn't a nationalist Yes. And for the last 18 months I've been fortunate to go all over the country and be involved in civic events in places like Dunblane, and Comrie, and Stromness in Orkney and Fife, and I've been amazed at the way that local communities have got themselves together and created events of their own accord and brought people in from outside to encourage discussion in their area. People from very mixed backgrounds and mixed political views.

"So I have been very encouraged by that. It's been the closest thing in my lifetime to the ideas I had as a philosophy student. I did study philosophical inquiry with a zeal to encourage critical and creative thinking in the mass of Scotland - I was a very idealistic 21-year-old - and the closest thing I have seen to that critical engagement has been what's happened around the referendum debate.

"So I'm very encouraged by that and by the people in my home area of Midlothian. Many of the people involved in the Yes campaign there have been women who have never been involved in politics before and I don't think they are going away.

"They are involved in politics and they are going to stay in politics."