Scotland votes no
It truly has been a dramatic and historic night. The eyes of the world have been firmly on the Scottish people, who in the course of the past 24 hours rejected independence in a referendum choosing to stay part of its 307-year-old union with England and Wales.
An estimated 55% of voters rejected Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s plans for his country to become a separate nation – although there were big majorities for independence in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, and in Dundee.
Edinburgh, the country’s capital, voted no, along with Aberdeen, and a host of other areas that might have been expected to have voted yes.
But in the end the vote was not as close as the last few polls - and the incredible energy and enthusiasm of the yes campaign on polling day - had suggested. Turnout was approximately 85% - unknown since the 1950s.
In an early-morning concession speech, Salmond said he accepted the verdict of the people but noted that Scotland had not chosen independence “at this stage”, suggesting he may return to the idea of independence.
“We have touched sections of the community who have never before been touched by politics,” he said.
The Scottish first minister also warned the three main parties in the UK that they must make good on their promises of further devolution for Scotland by 22 January 2015. The last-ditch promise made by the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat party leaders is proving controversial, particularly among prime minister David Cameron’s Tories.
“The people of Scotland have spoken” declared Alistair Darling, the former chancellor of Great Britain who led the campaign to keep the union.
Cameron spoke this morning, saying he was delighted Scots had voted to keep the union and suggesting the issue of Scottish independence had been settled for a generation - even for “a lifetime”.
Further devolution would now be taken forward by Lord Smith of Kelvin, the prime minister said - not just for Scotland, but for Wales, Northern Ireland and England too. The controversial question of Scottish MPs voting on English matters needed an answer, he said.
The Queen is expected to speak this afternoon, focusing on the reconciliation of the nation.
3 comments:
The Scottish Parliament is currently funded through a block grant and the amount it gets is defined by the Barnett Formula - an arrangement for adjusting funds to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to spend on devolved policy areas, on the basis of population . All three parties are committed to preserving the essence of this mechanism in some form.
And in proposals set out by the parties earlier this year, each offered Holyrood considerably more income tax-raising powers than the Scottish parliament has at present. However, there were significant differences between the parties in the proposed extent of those changes.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/624/mcs/media/images/77686000/jpg/_77686486_467f942c-a504-4186-b61e-8cbd59c042bc.jpg
Stock market reaction
Posted at 08:48
Shares in London have opened with sharp gains. The FTSE 100 is 0.6% higher in early trading. Royal Bank of Scotland shares are up 4%, Lloyds Banking Group, which owns Bank of Scotland, is up 2.6% and energy firm SSE is up 2%.
Post a Comment