Scotland wants to stay in UK
Scottish people celebrated an historic referendum to decide the separation of Scotland from the United Kingdom. To the question "Should Scotland be an independent country?" the 55.3% answered 'no' and the 44.7% said 'yes', which means 2,001,926 votes against 1,617,989.
That can be a historic date for United Kingdom – on 18th of September Scotland decided that still wants to be a part of UK. With 5.3 million inhabitants, which is the 8.3% of the UK population, Scotland is the second largest region of UK, just after England. With some exceptions, all residents in Scotland aged 16 or over can vote, a total of about 4.3 million people.
More than the 85% of Scottish people have participated in the referendum, which means the real interest of Scotland to decide about its future as an independent country or as a nation part of UK.
Right now, Scotland is in a good economic situation, especially because of its oil reserves. Actually, if oil revenues are part of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), Scotland is shown to generate more per head of population than the UK as a whole. Also, it has 7.5% unemployed,
while the UK rate is 7.8%.
In this video from The Guardian you can get to know better the current situation of Scotland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIeVmqVB9pQ
The parties and organisations that supported the independence belong to the campaign "Yes Scotland", while "Better Together" was the main campaign group to maintain the union. Glasgow, Dundee and West Dunbartonshire were the only cities where the 'yes' won.
After the voting, the Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond called for unity and urged the unionist parties to deliver on more powers. In fact, the UK´s First Minister David Cameron has said that the central government will give more autonomy on fiscal, social and employment issues, and not just to the Scottish Parliament but to England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well.
All Europe was waiting for the results. If the 'yes' would have won, Scotland would be out of the EU and the NATO as a new country, so it would have to apply again for its admission in both organisations, and all the Members States should support it with unanimity, which maybe wouldn´t be so easy to get. Actually, as the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has said, "This outcome is good for the united, open and
stronger Europe that the European Commission stands for".
The referendum in Scotland affects to all Europe, especially to some European countries which have regions asking for the celebration of a referendum because part of the population want to become an independent country, like Catalonia in Spain and Flanders in Belgium. In fact, the European political party - European Free Alliance (EFA), join 40 regionalist political parties which support the regional independence or form of self-governance of some regions.
Isabel Barragan
