Woe is me! That was the general feeling and demeanour of Yes campaign activists and supporters the day after the 55 per cent to 45 per cent defeat in the Scottish independence referendum on September 18. 

No matter how buoyant the feeling in the lead-up to the big day and on the day itself, the feeling of the loss of something that we didn’t even have was palpable.

By the end of the weekend that followed, however, there was a strange expectancy on the loose, as mixed in with the expressions of “we wuz robbed” resulting from videos of piles of Yes votes in the wrong bundles and ballot papers without the correct numbering, there was a feeling that this campaign was too strong to just dissipate. 

This was Jeanie with the light brown hair and she was too far out of the bottle to be forced back in, even by a setback as significant as this one.

We’ve seen pop-up events on the street, in squares, outside the Scottish Parliament, followed by sudden and dramatic surges in the memberships of parties who supported independence. 

This means that the unionist parties aren’t going to be allowed to backslide on the fairly desperate promises they had each made in their desire to buy a No vote. 

Alex Salmond announced he would step down as First Minister in November, but in the meantime he would be first in line to “hold the feet to the fire of those who made promises of significant new powers for the Scottish Parliament.”

The SNP has gone from around 25,000 members to over 75,000, with a backlog of applications which will very likely send that number soaring yet again in the weeks to come. 

On top of that the Greens have also trebled their membership to well over 6,000 while the Scottish Socialists have made very significant gains on the back of the activism of the Radical Independence Movement which had sprung up over the last 18 months. 

These aren’t numbers which will want to go back to talking of the next jumble sale fundraiser. 

They have a taste for action on the doorsteps convincing their communities that there is still hope for a better future free of the constraints of Westminster and Whitehall. In reality independence can’t be on the cards for some period, no matter what levels of enthusiasm prevail. 

However a change is gonna come and as the arch-unionist Tam Dayell MP predicted in the 1970s, devolution’s slippery slope has become a reality. 

While Scotland didn’t vote Yes for independence on September 18, the opportunities for powers over, among other areas, taxation and welfare may be the first steps towards a propitious moment when the people decide to go back to the future and vote for independence.

Bill Kidd is the SNP Scottish Parliament member for Glasgow Anniesland