Everyone’s valid ... even if they can’t pronounce ‘scone’

The answer is to keep the faith. Engage in the debate. Seek the truth...

The results are in. Everybody may be looking at the US, where history happens, one way or another.

But, as Americans inexplicably agonise over choosing between a man who represents a clear and present danger to world security and a woman who does not, the British people have been casting ballots on an equally-divisive matter.

How do you pronounce “scone”? That’s an important question, and happily it’s one that doesn’t involve a constitutional crisis, crumbling economy or the erosion of fundamental human rights. In times of uncertainty, you can’t go wrong with baked goods.

The answer is, of course, that it rhymes with “gone”, and 51% of people voting in a YouGov poll agree with me.

Sadly, 42% of those who voted think the word rhymes with “bone”, and if Theresa May is throwing undesirables out of the country maybe she’ll start with those dissident fools. Nobody needs them.

Fabulously, the Daily Telegraph reports that 3% of those polled didn’t know how to pronounce the word, and 3% said it in an entirely different, but undisclosed, way. Perhaps they were voting from Perthshire.

I have no idea what happened to the other 1%, who may have been a statistical variance or may have answered “Ukip” out of routine bloody-mindedness.

By this point I just wanted a scone.

Voting’s a funny business. With our Western values, we’ve sought to impose democracy, with mixed results, on societies across the world, assuming that the voice of the people is saying something worth hearing.

What happens when you disagree strongly with the result of an election? Many Scots have known the feeling for generations, but by tomorrow it may happen on a global scale.

The answer is to keep the faith. Engage in the debate. Seek the truth, and spread it. Do the right thing as we see it, and do not quit.

The common factor in all elections is the human element, and we have to believe we are going somewhere worthwhile, together, even if the path is hard. This too shall pass.

Everybody’s opinion is valid, whoever they vote for, and however they say “scone”.