Wash-Up of Scottish Independence Referendum

The close vote – including substantial concessions to cede power won even for the NO majority – resulted in calls for greater devolution from Westminster to parts of England; a review of the strength of the UK union and Nicola Sturgeon taking over as Scotland’s First Minister. This was the view of one analyst about achieving a 45 percent YES vote: “Independence used to command the support of a stubborn third of Scots…Yet 45% voted to repudiate British sovereignty…When close to half the population of a nation inside a union wants to break away, the state of that union is…fragile….when 45% want out of a state, that is perilously close to a constitutional crisis .”  The 1999 republic referendum in Australia, always described as a crushing loss, was 45 percent YES. [“Scotland’s glorious revolution must go on” by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian Weekly, 26 September 2014]