The surprising thing is that anybody was surprised that Scotland decided that it is better to stay in Britain but it was all a bit of an anti-climax really.
The Yes vote did well to get the 45% they did but it was always only ever the slightest glimmer of an outside chance once the economics of a break away was spelt out to the voters.
Some part of me wanted the Scots to vote Yes and then watch the start the long process of disentangling themselves of 300 years of partnership with the English, Irish and Welsh, it would have been interesting.
It would have turned nasty especially over the oil which we both seemed to be claiming but it has been settled and Scotland will bob along as previous, subsidised by the rest of us by taking more from the pot than it puts in.
The biggest loser is obviously Alex Salmond who has now resigned as First Minister but not far behind him is Andy Murray, who the English have never really warmed to, who came out in favour of Independence (surprising how many Scots who live elsewhere was keen to have an opinion on the country they left at the first chance they got) but now faces making his living in a country he wanted to break away from which may make Wimbledon interesting next year.
Anyway, now the Scots had their go, when is the referendum for the other Brits to see if we want to break away from Scotland?
2 comments:
It seems like the net effect of the vote is that the Scots extracted a bunch of concessions that irk the English.
Now you just need to come up with the final solution to the West Lothian Question. I had always wondered why they hand't gone to some sort of committee of English MPs for England-only votes right when devolution started in the 90s. I learned just recently that Labour can't win any UK elections without Scottish votes.
Couldn't they just establish a "constitutional convention" (I think that's the word) that losing a vote on an English-only matter wouldn't be something that would force the ruling party to resign? I guess the whole notion of "confidence" is entirely foreign to Americans because both our state and federal governments are structured with the intent that the houses of the legislature and the executive be able to prevent each other from passing laws.
-Nog
You are right Nog, they did gain some concessions that give more power to the Scottish Parliament but the Scots MPS have lost, or will lose in a nod towards finally tackling the West Lothian question, the ability to vote on English only matters.
In Scotland, the Conservatives has 1 MP, it is very much a anti-Tory place due to the Thatcher years when she savaged them with Poll tax, closing mines etc so if Scotland did go it would actually benefit the Tories as Labour has many votes up there but the SNP did cut into that.
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