I was up until the wee hours of this morning watching the live coverage of the Independence Referendum on the Internet feed from BBC Scotland. (It was much more interesting than the main BBC coverage.) Here are few random impressions.
1. The politics in Scotland are heavily skewed to the left. Representatives of the Labour party often represented the unionists view which was deem to be a “conservative” position.
2. The first returns were from small districts and were roughly 60/40 for No. When Dundee reported its results, the margin dropped into the 51/49 range, but it quickly settled into roughly 54/46 as other districts reported. When Edinburgh finally reported, the final result was 55/45 for No.
3. Scotland counted over 3,600,000 paper ballots in about 8 hours. By hand.
4. The vote from East Lothian, the area from which my ancestor emigrated in 1680, voted 62/38 for No.
5. The Yes vote won in only four districts (out of 32), all areas of high unemployment in what could be considered the Rust Belt of Scotland.
It was interesting to see many of my friends on Facebook urging their Scottish friends and relatives not to “squander” the chance as self determination but to vote Yes. Funny, whether the vote was Yes or No, it was the Scotts self determination that would make it so. Strange how some people think you are only exercising your rights if you agree with them.
Did anyone check the results from Lothlorian and Mordor? That would be most telling.
As one who has lived with the constant whining and childish demands, and subsequently the government throwing money at the Quebec separatists to placate them; it would have been better for the UK if Scotland had voted yes.
If Quebec ever puts forward another referendum, a large part of Canada has already indicated they want their own referendum on whether to kick them out .
We want them to stay, but we want them to stay as equals.
Maybe they should reshoot Brave Heart and have it end with William Wallace shouting out, “Better together!” before having his head amputated with an axe? I’m reminded of the scene where Wallace snubs the offers of titles and lands. When he queen states “Alliances are made of these,” Wallace retorts, “Slaves are made of these!”
Turns out they were both right.