2014 could have been the year that the United Kingdom was
torn asunder if Scotland had voted yes in the independence referendum held in
September. Fortunately Scottish voters rejected independence 55% - 45% on a
record breaking turnout of 85%!
For most of the campaign the result was considered a forgone conclusion; that Scottish voters would reject independence and stay in the Union. That assumption by the press was largely based on two reasons; the deficit the yes vote had at the beginning of the campaign and the near unanimity of opinion of the establishment against independence. The large deficit existed right up until August when suddenly the yes vote surged in popularity, some polls even showed yes voters outnumbering no voters! All of a sudden the Better Together campaign (the official campaign advocating a no vote) entered panic mode. The establishment suddenly realised that there was a very real chance that Scotland might vote yes. All of a sudden the leaders of the three main parties began making big promises of new powers for Scotland if they voted no. Gordon Brown, who is still very popular in Scotland, also made a number of high profile appearances towards the end of the campaign to try and encourage Scots to vote no. Some commentators have gone so far as to even credit him with saving the Union.
For most of the campaign the result was considered a forgone conclusion; that Scottish voters would reject independence and stay in the Union. That assumption by the press was largely based on two reasons; the deficit the yes vote had at the beginning of the campaign and the near unanimity of opinion of the establishment against independence. The large deficit existed right up until August when suddenly the yes vote surged in popularity, some polls even showed yes voters outnumbering no voters! All of a sudden the Better Together campaign (the official campaign advocating a no vote) entered panic mode. The establishment suddenly realised that there was a very real chance that Scotland might vote yes. All of a sudden the leaders of the three main parties began making big promises of new powers for Scotland if they voted no. Gordon Brown, who is still very popular in Scotland, also made a number of high profile appearances towards the end of the campaign to try and encourage Scots to vote no. Some commentators have gone so far as to even credit him with saving the Union.
Although independence failed in the September referendum
it has completely revolutionised politics there. Alex Salmond, the leader of
the SNP, resigned his position and was replaced by his protégé Nicola Sturgeon.
He has since announced that he will run in the 2015 General Election in the
constituency of Gordon. The seat is currently held by the Lib Dems but will
almost certainly flip in May. The leader of Scottish Labour, Johann Lamont, was
another casualty of the referendum, resigning not long after the results were
in. She explained that she was fed up with the main Labour Party treating
Scottish Labour as a branch office. Lamont was replaced with Jim Murphy, which was a huge error on Labour’s part. The SNP is doing extraordinarily well in the
polls, and it looks like the party could win a majority of Scotland’s MPs in
the upcoming General Election. The questions raised by the referendum on how
much control Scotland should have of its future have yet to be answered. How
the various players in Scottish politics act over the next few years will be
hugely important for the future of Scotland within the Union. Independence may
have been defeated, but a beast has been woken.
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| Referendum results by council area Darker red means larger margin for no Green areas mean a majority voted yes source: www.wikipedia.org |
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