When I was a schoolboy in 1967, I campaigned for Winnie Ewing, the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate in the Hamilton by-election. She won, ushering in a new era in Scottish politics where the independence question was never far away. The next day at school, my French teacher, Miss Mosen, asked me what would happen now. 'Oh,' I said breezily, 'independence is just round the corner.'
Forty-four years on, following the SNP's landslide victory in the Scottish parliamentary elections last Thursday, my youthful words have the best chance yet of becoming true.
The SNP won 69 seats in the Scottish legislature, giving the government of First Minister Alex Salmond not only a second term but an absolute majority over Labour with 37 seats and the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens trailing much farther behind. It managed that result in an electoral system set up by the UK government to prevent the, for them, nightmare scenario that has just occurred.
The Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, only won his own seat by just over 100 votes while many of his shadow cabinet members were swept away in a wave of support for the SNP that spread over the Labour heartlands, including the seat of the late Donald Dewar, the revered Labour architect of devolution.
For the first time in history, the SNP holds the majority of seats in Glasgow, formerly Labour's prime fiefdom. Yet in England and Wales, Labour did much better. What happened in Scotland?
Apart from the negative campaign run by Labour which, as usual, treated the Scottish people as vote fodder, plus a leader who wasn't, the SNP had done a good job of administering Scotland as a minority government, using a mix of social justice and common sense business acumen.
Alex Salmond, the SNP's highly articulate leader, a former economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland, cut local business taxes but opposed private sector involvement in public services. He froze the council tax, and got rid of prescription fees and provided free bus travel within Scotland for over-60s. He opposed nuclear power and outlined a shiny new future for Scotland as a leader in renewable energy.
The Scottish economy continues to have higher growth rates than the UK's which is on the slide.
Salmond, looking like a statesman rather than a town councillor, gave a vision to the people whose anti-Conservatism is in their DNA and who view David Cameron south of the border with the same distrust as Gordon Brown was viewed by the southern English.
The SNP government has rid Scots of the Scottish cringe — the fear that they are too stupid to rule themselves, hammered into them by a Machiavellian British state desperate to keep a Union together for economic rather than sentimental reasons.
Australians, given their outrage over the monarchy's ban of The Chaser's royal wedding commentary, probably know something of how this feels. The British state and the monarchical nest of privilege and elitism are past their use-by date — for both of us.
By showing that Scots not thirled to a Westminster party can rule and rule well, the SNP government has given the Scots confidence to think of a visionary alternative for the future.
Will this automatically lead to the breakup of the UK? There is not much left to break up. Most domestic Scottish legislation is dealt with by the Parliament in Edinburgh. Brussels is more important than Westminster for defence, foreign and social policy. Scotland would be a more enthusiastic member of the European Union (EU) than the UK or England as, in Europe, small countries are the norm and Scots are less imperially minded.
Even the word 'British' is used less and less, especially by young people in both Scotland and England who really don't relate to the term. So what's the problem?
The SNP has pledged to hold a referendum on Scottish independence during the current mandate. The UK PM, David Cameron, has been forced to admit that the SNP government has the mandate to do so even though he will fight it. According to polls, around one third of Scots regularly support independence — though it has been 50 per cent in the past.
In the meantime, the UK Government will have to hand over more and more power to the Scottish Government as it at least has the legitimate backing of the Scottish people. When the referendum comes, there won't be that much less to devolve and the dream of a young schoolboy over 40 years ago will have come true.
Duncan MacLaren, a lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, is a former parliamentary researcher and national press officer with the SNP.