The above is a screen shot I took during BBC Scotland’s coverage of the referendum for Scottish independence. The colored areas on the map are the ones where the votes had already been counted. Areas marked in red had voted against independence, green, for independence. Not surprisingly, the No’s won.
Why would I spend time watching the results? I have a warm spot in my heart for Scotland. Kaitlin spent her junior year of college at the University of St. Andrews, and I visited her twice while she was there. The first time was for a weekend in the fall when I was on my way to Germany for a business trip. The second was when Andy and I went for a week during Kaitlin’s spring break. We rented a car, saw a lot of the country, and had a great time.
So I love Scotland and think staying in the union is a good thing for it, especially if the Scots do get the increased autonomy they’ve been promised. We’ll have to see.
Did any of you care about the referendum, one way or another?
September 19, 2014
I hadn’t really looked at it in depth, just a few articles in the last few days — I actually only heard about it for the first time when talking to a Brit on a trail in the Tetons last week.
I’m actually surprised the results were not closer. I suspect that Scottish separation from the UK would have been economically traumatic
It was too close to call before they started counting the votes. With any luck the Scots, Irish and Welsh will get more local control because of the movement. The effort was not wasted, hopefully.
If the YES’s won it would have been more exciting. Same ole’ thing now. But such a small country might not have fared so well. Also I don’t like seeing the world map change so much as it has in my lifetime. Things are changing too fast.
It may not be the same old thing. Only time will tell.
All is well that ends well. My Scottish relatives wanted the No to win.
Me too!
I followed it with great interest. Unfortunately there was so much scare-mongering from the No camp about job losses, price rises, tax rises etc that many people took fright, stuck to the status quo and voted no. If the Scots had been braver and opted for independence, the outcome would have been fascinating.
Bikehikebabe: I don’t think the size of the country is important. Other small countries like Norway, Iceland and Finland are independent and survive very nicely.
My parents are from Ireland, which has made me lean a bit anti-UK for reasons that I can’t even articulate. So, I had a vague hope that Scotland would vote yes! Now, I should do some research and figure out a more logical opinion 😉
I’m quarter Irish — two of my great-grandparents came over from Ireland during the potato famine. My grandmother never used the word English — it was always the phrase “the dirty English”. I know enough history to understand why. It was a rotten business.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11326512
we have our own general elections, the polling booths are closed – the radio (I don’t have a TV) are full of it and this link above is the “interactive vote” page…no sorry you have to click on something else…
at this point it doesn’t look like a CO government…
I’m in the New Lynn electorate if you are interested the main candidate just happens to the leader of the Labour Party – so I doubt that will change…
lots of red herrings and intrigue this election campaign, earlier voters up as well (I voted Thursday because I was busy Frid and today)
I hadn’t followed it closely, so no strong feelings. My prejudice is that the stronger usually exploit the weaker, so thought it might be best for them to increase their autonomy.
National (Tory) Party retained their hold on our government leadership. I have not taken into too much more but apparently some progressive political figures have lost out big time – that was caused by a number of what might be deemed “bad press” situations that I mentioned in a minor way above.
I don’t know how much of the electioning statements will move/change – time will tell…and frankly my life will not change as far as I can see by them. The changes will be made by me – if I want, when I must etc 🙂