On the creation of this blog, I asked readers what their opinions were on Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister. The results are as follows:

Margaret Curran MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, gave a speech to Labour Conference today praising the successful no campaign. The full text of her speech is as follows:

Conference, my fellow Scots have spoken.

And we have said no to separation, no to division, no to the end of solidarity – and no to a false border being erected between the working people of our four great nations.

But I tell you what else conference – we said yes too.

Not yes to independence – but yes to recognising our interdependence, yes to cooperation, and yes to a strong Scotland inside a changed United Kingdom.

As we meet here in Manchester with the referendum behind us, the call for change that we heard on Thursday still rings out.

And let me tell you this Scotland – you have been heard.

That’s why I will not rest until you get all that you have been promised – not just more powers for the Scottish Parliament, but the full use of the whole range of powers to build the kind of Scotland we all want to see.

And I want to begin by thanking the people who helped us win the argument to keep our nations working together.

So let me pay warm tribute to Alistair Darling, to Anas Sarwar and to my friend, the woman who takes the fight to Alex Salmond every week in the Scottish Parliament, our Scottish Labour leader, Johann Lamont.

And let me give a very special and heartfelt thanks to a man who electrified this campaign.

Gordon Brown.

A son of Scotland whose speech last Wednesday, on the eve of the vote, reminded people what they were really voting for.

And let us say as a result of that speech we can be confident that the No campaign won this argument not through fear, not by default, but as a positive, patriotic and above all progressive choice.

But I don’t just want to thank the politicians; I want to thank the thousands of Labour Party activists and trade unionists from all across the United Kingdom who campaigned in Scotland and proved in practice what has always been our highest ideal – that we achieve more together than we ever can alone.
Conference, the result of this referendum was a decisive moment in Scotland’s story.

It is undoubtedly clear that devolution – Labour’s legacy – is indeed the settled will of the Scottish people.

But, conference, just as we could not be complacent during the referendum campaign, neither can we be complacent after the result.

We have to be honest when we look at the results and see that some of the people who think that Britain can’t work for them are Labour voters.

They are terrified of Tory governments, they are worried about the future of our public services, and they are looking at their living standards which have been ground down year on year.

We need to understand why they are angry and what we need to do about it.

We need to understand why, in areas like Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Dundee people feel so let down that they want to opt out entirely.

But let us remember this: the Yes campaign did not win.

They could not convince people that they could provide any real positive future for the people of Scotland.

But when we, as a movement based on partnership, community and co-operation look at Scotland today and see a country divided, we cannot be satisfied.

While the decision of the Scottish people is absolutely clear, I understand that many of my fellow citizens are hurting and they believe that progress on their hopes for Scotland has stalled.

Our most important task now is to persuade them they should not be afraid.

I know many good and decent people, driven by values similar to ours, who voted yes.

We may have disagreed on the means, but we share a very similar vision about the kind of Scotland we want to build.

And that vision can still be realised.

So if you voted yes because you wanted a fairer and better Scotland, then we can work together.

If you voted yes because poverty and inequality cuts you to the core, then come with us.

And if you voted yes because you want to build a movement to change our country, I say the Scottish Labour Party is not your opponent but your home.

Conference, in 2008, I lost the Glasgow East by-election.

It was a blow. Not just because of what it meant for our party.

But because we had lost people’s trust.

So I went into all parts of the community and I listened.

I listened to why people didn’t vote for us and what we needed to do to change.

And we won them back.

We need to do the same again.

And words are not enough – now is the time to act.

In the past two years in Scotland, politics has been in our streets, our shops, our workplaces, our hairdressers and our pubs.

And even on Irn Bru crates.

Not confined to Parliaments and committees.

Politics has been in every part of our communities and our country.

And that’s where it has to stay.

That’s why I will go to the ten constituencies in Scotland with the highest Yes votes and meet with Labour voters who opted for Yes last Thursday.

Because the campaign to change Scotland didn’t end on Thursday. It only started. And it needs to include everyone.

I’ll go wherever people will have me – pubs, miners’ halls, tenants’ forums, school gates, colleges, bowling clubs and bingo halls.

If you’re a community group tweet or email me and let’s talk.

And when I say let’s talk – I mean really talk – no media, no notes, no planted questions, no printed placards.

Just me and my fellow Scots talking about the future, until they’ve had their say.

And this has to extend all the way through our Party.

Which is why today, I’m also asking every Scottish Labour representative to join me in doing the same.

To go out into their communities and talk to the people who did not vote with us last Thursday.

Conference this is how we will heal our society and how we will rebuild our country.

And with Scotland’s place in the UK now confirmed, it is our responsibility to make Scotland, and the whole of Britain, the fairer and better place that Scots voted for last Thursday.

That means no longer allowing Scottish politics to be fuelled by grievance and blame.

It means coming together to work together to find solutions to the problems we face.

And it means being bold and radical in the approach we take.

Now that we have settled the matter, we have that opportunity to move forward with a plan to rebuild Britain so that it works for Scotland.

Addressing those issues of low pay and insecurity that so many people spoke to me about during the campaign.

With an increase to the minimum wage and an end to exploitative zero hours contracts.

Responding to the unfairness in our tax system by introducing a 50p tax rate so that those with the broadest shoulders bear more of the burden.

And taking on the powerful and calling out abuses when we see them, starting with freezing gas and electricity prices and fixing our rip off energy market.

That is what people expect a Government to do.

And, conference, under Ed Miliband that is exactly what the next Labour government will do.

Conference, it has been a long, hard two and a half years.

And I have to tell you I have enjoyed it.

The Scottish people have taught us a lot about our politics.

But people across the rest of Britain have done the same.

It was great to have the backing of David Bowie and David Beckham – but we were even more pleased to have the support of ordinary people from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who overwhelmingly said in the closing weeks of the campaign that they wanted us to stay.

So please take this message from this conference to your towns and cities.

Thank you.

Thank you for saying that we have more in common than we have apart.

Thank you for standing up for co-operation and solidarity.

And thank you for staying with us throughout this campaign.

Friends, in this campaign, we argued that the better future for Scots lay in working together, in partnership with people across Britain.

Together pooling and sharing resources, building prosperity and addressing poverty and inequality wherever we found it.

Together, not embracing a race to the bottom, but arguing for and building social justice for all.

Together, uniting our movement and now our nations.

And, conference, we will look forward now to the new and better Scotland we can build together.

On Thursday, our cause was national unity, let our cause now be national renewal.

The vote is firmly over, the work of change must now begin.

Thank you.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel persuaded to trust Labour going into the 2015 General Election? Are you prepared to work with them?