It was like Christmas, and Scotland woke up to find it had gotten nothing but coal.
Whichever way the vote went, roughly half of the population was going to be ecstatic and the other half would be upset. Prime Minister David Cameron's gamble worked out in his favor and Scotland will remain within the union for the foreseeable future, although it was much closer than he could have imagined when he okayed the referendum.
The results themselves almost perfectly matched the projected closing polls from that morning. The vote ended with 45 - 55 in favor of "No," whereas the polls had predicted 46 - 54.
However, 97% of the Scottish population is now registered to vote and Scotland experienced an 86% overall voter turnout: one of the highest in the democratic history of the world. So Scotland is still a winner.
I think, ultimately, fear of the unknown prevailed when voters went to the polls, and we've known that the "No"s have been a quieter majority all along. One of the biggest issues causing a No vote was the inability of the SNP to say, with certainty, that Scotland would get to keep the pound. While David Cameron said they would not be allowed to, First Minister Alex Salmond insisted that the pound is as much Scotland's as it is the UK's and that they would still be able to use it.
There was also uncertainty when it came to Scotland's future in the the European Union. The EU refused to make any statements on the matter. Would Scotland have had to go through the regular process of being approved, meeting standards, and receiving a unanimous vote to enter (which Spain would have probably rejected due to their similar problems with the Catalonia region)? Or, as current EU citizens already, would they have had a simpler, swifter process of entering since they were just maintaining the rights they already had? This also would have given them the backup of using the Euro if they would have been unable to keep the usage of the pound.
The Conservative Party, currently in control of Westminster along with the Liberal democrats, has promised that if they win majority in the 2015 UK elections that they will hold a UK-wide referendum on whether to remain in the EU or leave. A party named UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) has been formed with the prospect of leaving the EU as their platform issue. They are kind of like the UK's Tea Party. Scotland, as always being far more liberal-voting on issues, most certainly wants to remain in the EU and will not be voting in high numbers for the Conservatives (not that they ever do, because they don't, not since Margaret Thatcher). But if Conservatives win and this referendum passes, Scotland will definitely put up more protest.
A majority of the UK's nuclear weapons are in Scotland, and Scotland would not have let them stay there in the case of independence. The UK would have no where to put them. And how much oil is left in the North Sea?
Scotland undeniably would have been able to exist and do at least fairly well as an independent country. The main question was: Would it have been better off?
But most of that doesn't really matter so much anymore (until the next thing comes up). Scotland voted No. But 45% of Scots wanted an independent state. It doesn't seem like Westminster will be willing to devolve (give power from the central UK government to the regional Scottish government) many extra powers to the Scottish Parliament, as was the more preferable option by the "Better Together" campaign. The only powers that have been formally discussed for further devolution are limited Social Security and Economical powers. Far from the coveted devo max. David Cameron is reported to have laid out a plan today for giving further devolution to Scotland. We'll see how that looks for Scotland.
Alex Salmond has also announced that, after the failed move for independence, he will step down as the First Minister of Scotland as well as from being the Scittish National Party leader (the majority-holding party of Scotland). Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is seen as the most likely person to succeed him as SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland for the remainder of the four year term.
As a political amateur looking at the history of Scottish devolution, the past three moves for devolution have been made within roughly 15-18 years of each other. I think Scotland will be calling for devo max (maximum devolution) by 2030. Especially since they've gotten a taste of being so close to gaining independence. But that's just my prediction. I'm no expert.
As for my day, personally, after a couple of trips down to Holyrood (the site of the Scottish Parliament) to witness and mingle with the Yes and No rallies that were gathered all day (and being told off by an adamantly No lady for being a dumb American wearing Yes buttons when I had no say in the issue), most of my friends and I spent the majority of the evening grouped around two computers: one live streaming the BBC One Scotland Decides coverage, which our British Politics professor Dr Charlie Jeffery was on the panel for and the other with STV Scotland Decides, which our Scottish Politics professor James Mitchell was on the panel for. It's really neat that our professors are such active, professional academics. We definitely fangirled every time they showed one of them and when they got to give their expertise on issues and data. We weren't all girls.
One of my friends and I actually stayed up the whole night to watch all 32 of the regional councils' results come in and then watch Alex Salmond's statement at the end. Not David Cameron's though. That's right, I stayed up until 7:00 a.m. after a week of classes and minimal sleep. Then I woke up at 12:30 p.m. I'm, understandably, still tired.
The part of the evening where the vote was at 49.2 - 49.8 was more exciting than any sports ball game. But the No vote gained a lot of ground and stayed ahead the whole evening (as I predicted in my last post).
I'm unbelievably lucky and thankful that I got to experience all of this first hand.
Now I have three more papers to write. So I'll do that.
I still love you, Scotland!