Aye, laddies. We must have spent three hours watching the BBC Scotland, trying to decipher the referendum as the returns came in. Despite the thickness of the Scottish accents, we were able to translate as many as two or three syllables an hour. It was enough to give us to understand that, aye, the parliament of the United Kingdom is going to be burdened for some time yet — another 300 years maybe — with the 40 Labor votes from Scotland. In respect of this news, sterling rose, though only for a few minutes before regaining its wits.

Next up, the European Union. Much as we favored Scottish independence — the liberation of England, as we like to think of it — the faction that has had the clear vision through this whole drama is the United Kingdom Independence Party. We caught one of its members on the BBC Scotland. While others were talking about more social spending in Scotland and the need for the Conservatives to make good on their promises to help fund all this social justice and grant more powers to Scotland, the UKIP aide was talking about the need for free market, pro-growth policies.

This is the far bigger issue — this and a sound currency (what is the point of talking about sterling rising against, say, the dollar if sterling and the dollar are both falling against the classical measure of value, gold, as they were both doing this morning?). The prospect of a referendum on Britain’s exit from the European Union arises from UKIP’s campaign. It resulted in a promise made by Prime Minister Cameron in January 2013. He vowed that if the Conservative government survives the 2015 election, it would renegotiate terms with the EU and then put it to a referendum. Slippery, but a promise.

The right move for America is to start crafting an alternative for Britain — a strengthened relationship between Britain and America and other freedom loving countries, such as Canada, say, Australia, Israel, and India. President Obama has taken the opposite approach, warning Britain to stay with Europe, which, when one thinks about it, is incredible. We understand that there are those who would call such a strategy the long way around. Let them see if they can mount a campaign to revive in Scotland the spirit of Adam Smith, for whom Rupert Murdoch put in a plug in the run-up to the vote this week. Meantime the referendum on a British exit from Europe is the most important pending event.