As a Scot watching all of the coverage live last night and being on Facebook and Twitter, I definitely have something to say. First and foremost, I cannot understate my disappointment in the result. Granted it was kind of close, 55% No to 45% Yes, but some majorly shocking announcements were made and it saddens me to no end. I can understand why the English may not see it that way and "we're better together" and whatnot but that's your opinion. The Scots were the ones with the decision in the end. I have a few things I want to talk about:
My area, East Ayrshire, voted no. I'd like to hear from @
VideoGamerHD on this too because we're both from there and we were more supportive of the Yes campaign. In fact, most of my timeline on both Facebook and Twitter from the area were Yes supporters. This is one of the reasons we find it kind of fishy that East Ayrshire voted no.
Dundee and Glasgow both voted yes. Dundee had their fire alarm go off twice, there was a controversy about Yes votes being in the No pile there, their turnout suddenly dropped from 90% to 78% and they did still end up voting Yes by a wide margin, but it wasn't enough. Again a lot of people thought something weird was going on.
Glasgow also voted Yes, but not by much, and only 75% of the people there turned up to vote. This was surprising considering Glasgow is huge, and it was also supposed to be a Yes city. There were also reports of electoral fraud- people coming in wearing blue gloves and attempting to vote twice.
Now I'm not saying there
was something going on in these areas, my timeline was just in awe of what was happening and it all seemed to be happening to the Yes votes. But we can't change the result now and we have to deal with it. Fine. Both sides were respectful enough about it, as people have said, and I hope that everyone will continue to be friendly now that the decision has been made. I personally will hold no grudges against people and I hope noone will hold grudges against me. I may not have voted (I have my reasons) but I know where I stand, and to the others that stand on the opposite side I congratulate you on a successful campaign and whatnot despite the disagreement.
Catalonia also have been thinking about independence, and along with the rest of the world I know they were watching excitedly. On my first night at university I spoke to a few Catalonian girls and they seemed passionate about independence, telling me they were hoping for it from us as it could give them the push to go for it too. I feel like our country has let them down, and the rest of the world that backed us up, but now I wish them along with any other place thinking about independence the best.
You know what? I didn't vote but I'm disgusted that people can't even allow themselves to accept change. 55% of Scotland fell, the world will now laugh at us and continue to generalize us as British and rightly so. The No voters clearly don't understand that Scotland had a chance to do something different and take control of its money, resources and country. We would've been one of the richest countries in the world but noooooooo, people for some reason believed that better change would come for Scotland if they stayed with the UK. That's just being naive. If there are changes coming for Scotland, why haven't they been introduced already? Why did they have to wait until a referendum to introduce these "changes" they promise? Their campaign had nothing to back it up and it contradicted itself but alas somehow people in Scotland believed in the party they
didn't even vote for in the general election- the Tories. And on that point, the Scottish votes in every general election for the past 60ish years HASN'T AFFECTED THE RESULT. This was the ONE chance Scotland had to make a difference for itself and for its peoples votes to actually count and now we'll never be heard again.
That's how the BBC would like you to see it, but believe it or not throughout the entire thing they've been EXTREMELY biased. It's shocking and unfair frankly. Just search for it - "BBC Scottish independence bias" - I'm sure you'll find plenty of results. Not surprising since they're the
British Broadcasting Corporation but an unbiased media coverage of the entire thing would've been appreciated.
It makes sense?! How? It makes sense that the Scots should pay for English expenditures? It makes sense for Scotland to be involved with England's wars? It makes sense for the Scottish foodbanks to continue to be there? For children to continue living in poverty? For the unemployment rates to remain so high? For
no changes to be made of worth? For Scotland to have to give their resources to the English?
Now as I say this don't take it as a sign of hatred for England or the rest of the UK, that's not true, I just feel that the Scottish have blown the one opportunity we had for real change and the opportunity to take matters into our own hands. I have family in England, the Scots and English are particularly amicable from my point of view, so any tension between the two countries is coming from others. I'm all for an amicable relationship between the two countries, along with Wales and Northern Ireland of course, but the No campaign have not promised anything of worth to the Scottish in my opinion. Every person that cheered as they watched Scotland slowly continue to be placed in the power of another country hurt the idea of truly being Scottish, and the ideas and beliefs of William Wallace. Though I truly hope for the best, I can't say it will happen. Those who disagree with my opinion have the right to.
I'm also very open which sometimes isn't the best thing...but hey ho lol
