SCOTLAND has voted to stay in the United Kingdom after voters decisively rejected independence. With the results in from all 32 council areas, the “No” side won with 2,001,926 votes over 1,617,989 for “Yes”. In percentage point, it is 45 and 55 respectively. Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond called for unity and urged the unionist parties to deliver on more powers.UK Prime Minister David Cameron said he was delighted the UK would remain together and said the commitments on extra powers would be honoured. Mr Cameron said the three main unionist parties at Westminster would now follow through with their pledge of more powers for the Scottish Parliament. “We will ensure that those commitments are honoured in full,” he said.He announced that Lord Smith of Kelvin, who led Glasgow’s staging of the Commonwealth Games, would oversee the process to take forward the commitments, with new powers over tax, spending and welfare to be agreed by November, and draft legislation published by January.Scotland has been part of the Union since 1707. Following an agreement between the Scottish and the United Kingdom governments, the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill, setting out the arrangements for this referendum, was passed by the Scottish Parliament in November 2013.Recent data, from 2012-13, show that Scotland generated 9.1% (£53.1bn; this included a geographical share of North Sea oil revenue ¾ without it, the figures were 8.2% and £47.6bn) of the UK’s tax revenues and received 9.3% (£65.2bn) of spending -meaning that it received a net subsidy of around GBP 12 billion. This, among other factors such as the traditionally close historical ties and the warm relations it enjoys with Britain, must have weighed heavily in the minds of voters who choose to vote ‘No’ – although statistically they represented only 47 percent of the total voting population.While 47 percent of the voting population voted ‘No’ – almost 39 percent voted ‘Yes’ – not an insignificant number. One of the main reasons for the majority of the ‘No’ vote must have been the gradual devolving of powers from Westminster – in other words, Scots want more powers for their own Parliament. So the ‘No’ vote must not be seen as just a referendum on staying with the Union – it must also be seen as a sign that the Scottish people want more rights in the determination of their own political systems.It is both the beauty and weakness of democracy that a minority decides the future of the majority – in this case the 47 percent determining the future of all of Scotland. Historically there are other parallels – the US election in 1960 where President Kennedy won by 49.7 percent to Nixons 49.6 percent – and the more sinister case of 1932 where the Nazis under Adolf Hitler came to power winning only 32 percent of the vote. The will of the people may be flawed and temperamental – however imperfect it remains the standard by which political systems are judged to be free and fair.
