DONALD Dewar, one of the principle architects of devolution, used to say it was a process not an event. I feel much the same about independence. Back in ’79 I believed, in my innocence, that nobody in their right mind would reject the modest amount of powers on offer to a new assembly.

Scotland did in fact vote Yes – by a not dissimilar margin to the Leave Brexit vote three years ago as it happens: 51.6% to 48.4%.

However that somewhat whispered Yes never became the “sacred will of the people” as per the 2016 result. Thanks to that nice George Cunningham and his 40% rule, a simple majority wasn’t enough. His amendment demanded 40% of the registered electorate said Aye, so 32.9% didn’t cut it. Worse still, the device ensured that folk who didn’t vote at all would essentially be entered in the No column.

What stuck particularly in the craw was that Cunningham, although a Dunfermline-born Scot, only ever sat in the Commons for a London seat. In Islington! It is not reported whether he tilled an allotment there, but as a subsequent defector to the SDP we can safely assume he and the blessed Jeremy were never likely to be soul mates.

When I calmed down after that first referendum – that took a good few years – I came to the conclusion that the assembly on offer would have been too shilpit an affair to command much respect or get anything of any moment past the necessary Westminster seal of approval.

Likewise the revamped Royal High School, which was to have been its home, looked like nothing so much as a beefed-up student debating chamber.

But it was a staging post on our national journey, and is a timely reminder never to underestimate the wiles of political saboteurs. Of so much more significance was getting our own parliament 20 years later.

And four years after that, a custom-built, award-winning building fit for a national capital.

There was, you’ll remember, no shortage of girning about its cost. Some useful context here is the fact that an overspill office block for Westminster cost over half the price of our entire Holyrood parliamentary estate.

Now, as we prepare for parliament’s 20th anniversary, we have arrived at perhaps the most important crossroads of all. Take the wrong fork this time and we could be propelled into a post-Brexit wilderness for decades to come.

Destined to live in global isolation with, for company, some distinctly unsavoury companions; those thinly veiled racists, bigots and xenophobes whom the 2016 poll allowed to emerge from their bunkers.

Conversely, we can decide to harness the immense human and natural resources of our country to shape a future built on more humanitarian and equitable lines. Five years ago the naysayers were able to play on the fears of many Scots that independence might threaten their livelihood and security. I blame nobody for harbouring those fears; when you have a fixed income and live in an age of austerity you become more risk averse.

But now I think any risk lies in the opposite direction. The scariest risk lies in continuing to sail into economic catastrophe on board HMS Westminster with its hapless crew and its thrawn, shortsighted, temporary captain. Those in the queue for the bridge hardly inspire more confidence!

This week has been a momentous one for Scotland’s future. A pledge from the First Minister for another referendum before 2021. A citizens’ assembly to build consensus. A commitment from this newspaper to go into full campaign mode with, crucially, a unit which can rebut dodgy information and fake news.

Then, yesterday morning, the launch of a civic, non-party political campaign dedicated to offering rational debate and a safe space for all those whom we must still persuade to join the national journey to self-determination.

I was delighted to join the birth of Voices for Scotland, which does what it says on the tin – harnesses and utilises the hundreds of thousands of voices who are willing Scotland to become a modern European nation in its own right.

These voices will belong to old and young Scots. They will belong to the indigenous population and those who have paid us the compliment of choosing our country for their new home. But as Elaine C Smith, chair of the Scottish Independence Convention, pointed out, their new campaigning arm is also about listening and engaging respectfully and genuinely with those who may come on our great adventure but still have reservations.

Many people who voted No five years ago almost immediately regretted their hesitancy. Many more have changed their minds recently, as they survey the anarchy and chaos which seems to be the daily diet in the “mother of parliaments”. Trying to stop that chaos and dismantle Brexit is a huge task and may prove a thankless and impossible one.

For me, and many more voices for Scotland, our eyes must also and always be on the main prize. I’ve lived through a lot of false dawns on the road to the promised land. This time I truly believe we have the will, the determination and the ammunition to give Scotland back to her people.