End London Rule: Chapter One

(A wee project I started working on)

Edinburgh was in party mood. There was a buzz around the city not even matched during the Fringe festival held annually during the Summer. Holyrood Park was the place to be. A sea of Saltire flags blew in the breeze. It felt as though the entire population of Scotland had turned up to celebrate this historic moment. Well, the side of the population that supported Scottish independence at least. Public transport had been mobbed. Hotels packed. People had travelled from far and wide. Some from as far South as Lockerbie, others from as far North as Orkney and Shetland. Others had flocked from everywhere else in between. Privately hired coaches lined the road through the park. Everybody wanted to be here.
Even the First Minister had made a guest appearance, and danced the Macarana. Much to the delight of the onlooking crowd. Music continued to blare through huge speakers strategically placed around the area. Important figures in the Scottish independence movement poised to deliver their speeches. In just a couple of hours Scotland would know. Scotland would be free. Three hundred years of Union oppression would be over. Scotland, no longer an unequal member of the United Kingdom. Instead a free country that would finally be able to reverse the centuries of poverty and hardship bestowed on it. The people here today could hardly wait. They'd waited a long time for this, and worked incredibly hard to achieve what was coming. This was Scotland's moment.
It hadn't all been plain sailing though. An onslaught of UK Government propaganda via the media, had almost derailed the whole...