Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Scots Vote to Keep the Union

The votes were counted by breakfast this morning, and yesterday's referendum on Scottish independence went down to defeat 55% to 45%. Turnout across the kingdom was 84.5% with some areas topping 90% of the electorate casting a ballot. This is the highest turnout in any election since universal suffrage became the law in 1918. The people have spoken, and yet, change is coming.

The unionist side feared a close race, but a 10% margin of victory, while not a landslide, is not a squeaker either. Nevertheless, 45% of the nation voted to leave the United Kingdom. A majority of the voters in Glasgow, the biggest city in Scotland, voted against the union. This wasn't a referendum of what color Scotland should paint its No-Parking signs; it was on whether a 307-year-old partnership was so badly damaged that it needed to be dissolved. That 1.6 million voters wanted to end the relationship suggests that the status quo was never an option. The question was how much change would there be.

All eyes now turn to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his proposals for greater powers for Edinburgh. The drafting of new powers begins now, and the proposals will (in the form of a "command" paper) be made public in October. Whatever consultations will occur shall end in November, with the publication of a white paper. A new Scotland bill should be ready in January and written into the Queen's Speech in May.

Already one can hear some noises that will make the next chapter of constitutional evolution in the UK interesting to say the least. There is a faction in the Tory Party that is saying enough already. Meanwhile, in Wales, Plaid Cymru (the nationalist party there) is demanding that Wales get more control over its affairs, too. The fact that there is a general election due before June only makes this more interesting, by which one means complicated.

This journal backed independence because it offered the most definite way of forcing constitutional change across all of the constituent parts of the UK. A 45% Yes vote doesn't carry the same punch, but it does have an impact. Decentralizing the British state so that Scots, Welsh, English and Northern Irish citizens have greater say over their own lives has been necessary for decades. Now, it will actually have to be discussed, and quite likely, implemented. The British constitution has not seen this kind of change in decades, and the results of this whole campaign will go down in history alongside the Reform Act of 1832 and universal suffrage.

What is particularly gratifying, however, is the way in which the British, not just the Scots, handled this whole affair. While there was some nastiness and tribal nonsense, by and large, the democratic process prevailed with a peacefulness that enhanced the legitimacy of the exercise. Politicians around the world need to learn that the people will vote if they have a reason to vote. When the electorate believes that the votes count, they will cast their ballots in huge numbers. And because they did so in an atmosphere of relative peace and tranquility, all sides accept that the will of the people is clear.

If nothing else, the world has seen that political decisions of the most fundamental type need not decay into violence. One is almost proud of the human race this morning.

© Copyright 2014 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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