No more preambles about oaths being to the people or childish crossing of fingers behind backs as though it somehow makes the oath void. Maybe it works in the playground, but not in a national Parliament.
There should be no more publicity stunts, because they had their chance to make their views known and they lacked the courage to take it.
A massive majority, 116, to be exact, voted to praise Her Majesty and, here's the key bit for supposed republicans, they voted yes to "looking forward with anticipation to the continuation of that long and close relationship".
Surely Patrick Harvie and his Green colleague Alison Johnstone are the only MSPs who can credibly claim to be republicans after only they voted against the motion.
There are certainly far more than two supposed Scottish republicans in the Scottish Parliament, many have been loud and proud about it in the past, but they have failed to stand up be counted when given the opportunity.
Two copped out, sorry abstained, and some claimed to have had constituency business and missed the vote. Believe that if you like.
Perhaps the party leaders and bosses didn't want to be seen as raining on Her Majesty's many parades, when so much attention praise and gratitude is being applied in layers.
However, to have achieved that result in that vote is testament to not only the power and ability of the party whips, but the willingness of the backbenchers to be whipped.
As a consequence, what they have sacrificed is the right to ever again declare they want to see a Scotland where sovereignty lies with the people and the hereditary principle of Monarchy has no place.
Otherwise they would be hypocrites, wouldn't they?
WHEN he launched the Yes Scotland campaign last week Alex Salmond said they would use "community activism and online wizardry to win the referendum vote.
It didn't get off to the greatest of starts after the gaffe that saw Twitter followers used as supporters on the official campaign website.
With Labour and Tory MSPs on the list of 'followers' it was obvious there was a flaw in that assertion.
Everyone who uses Twitter knows the term 'follower' is not used in the sense of Christians following Jesus, but merely an interested party, and in many cases it is to 'keep your enemies close'.
Looks like Mr Salmond needs to send his wizards back to Hogwarts for a refresher course.
