BREAKING: Scotland Rejects Independence

[Chan790]

27. Did they?

I'm biased (towards independence) and should be...I'm the descendent of exiled Jacobites on my paternal side who fled Scotland under warrants for their execution for backing Charles Edward Stuart's claim to the throne in the uprisings; living long enough to see their clan chieftainship handed to an apostate loyalist scum cousin, their lands taken, and their tartan used to dress oppressing forces against their fellow Catholics in N. Ireland.

And yet as much as I wanted a "Yes" vote, I think this was won for Scotland months ago when Westminster was compelled to basically give the Scots "the whole farm", so to speak, on devolution of authorities if they voted "No." The Scots are self-governing to a degree they have not been in centuries; self-governing to a degree that makes the continued Union one largely in name only for the Scottish people. Scotland is functionally a "Free State" today and onward. They control their own affairs, the Thatcherites and Blairites in London have less say over Scotland than Scottish MPs have over England.

So to say they blew it is unnuanced at-best. The concessions towards Holyrood are very likely to be the fractures upon which the UK stumbles. Belfast is largely, but not as largely now as Holyrood, the seat of a self-governing N. Ireland. It's not a stretch to think Cardiff will abruptly demand the same degrees of autonomy. There then goes the Union...the barbarians would be upon the gates, the English having less authority over their own affairs than the self-governing states of the Union {N. Ireland, Wales, Scotland} have over England, London and the UK within parliament.

At that point, only two options remain for the English: their right of unilateral dissolution of the writ of Westminster (that is, dissolving the UK--kicking Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland out to go it on their own) or forming their own English Parliament separate from Westminster to afford them their own self-autonomy within the Union...basically rendering the UK into a loose confederation of self-governing states with few shared responsibilities.

At some point, after the margin narrowed, the Scotland question became one of "Yes, we win. No, they lose." for the Scots. There was no losing proposition for Scotland last night. They'd already gotten all the prizes and were going to be allowed to dodge the consequences if they voted to maintain the now-mostly-empty Union.