People have been asking me about the
current mood of people in Scotland in the wake of the Scottish Referendum vote
last Thursday. Many people in Scotland
have been surprised to learn that American citizens living in Scotland could
not vote, but nevertheless that was the case. As a result, Diane and I were
bystanders to this process, caught in the middle of an historic event but able
to do little except share our views and encourage people who could vote to do
so.
I think that for most people this was a
very personal choice: It was interesting
to see how the different people in our circle made up their minds. People from
England living in Scotland voted predominantly No, because of their sense of
vulnerability as an often-resented minority; some English people we know were
so afraid of independence that they had vowed to move back to England if the
Referendum had succeeded. You voted No
if you thought that independence was going to threaten your livelihood (eg if
you worked in the finance industry), your pension, or your research grants; if
you didn’t trust Alex Salmond and the Scottish National Party; or if you were
just generally risk-averse.
In the same way, you voted Yes if you felt adventurous;
longed for or idealized the rational social democracies of Scandinavia and imagined
that an independent Scotland would follow their example; felt overlooked,
short-changed, alienated by the Westminster government in London; if you didn’t
like having nuclear weapons parked down the Clyde from where you live; or if
you just didn’t trust the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition (or the
Labour Party for that matter) to act in the best interests of Scotland. This appears to have been more the case for
young people than people our age. In the
end, it is easy to imagine that most people who voted Yes did so from a genuine
sense of doubt and fear that the three main parties in Westminster have either
the will or the means to come to an agreement any time soon about further
devolution for Scotland.
And for us, as foreign nationals living in the
UK, it was difficult not to be strongly swayed by the increasing xenophobia of
the ruling coalition, as evident in their anti-immigrant policies and
Eurosceptic views. We were (and still
are) afraid that the Westminster government is going take the UK out of the
European Union while making foreigners like us feel even more unwelcome. So we too were strongly influenced by our sense
of vulnerability but saw an independent Scotland as a potentially friendlier
place for us to live.
Yes and No supporters in Glasgow found
themselves in the particularly puzzling place of being in a city that had voted
Yes while because the rest of Scotland went for No. Perhaps that sense of dissonance explains why
violence broke out in George Square on Friday night (it was quickly contained).
So what is the
current mood of the people of Scotland?
I think that most of us are relieved that the whole long, loud messy
business is done with (for now anyway).
Beyond that, it depends which side of the Referendum you ended up on: Folks who had voted No were greatly relieved
that the Independence Referendum didn’t pass, thus sparing them from the negative
outcomes or uncertainties they had envisioned.
On the other hand, many folks who voted Yes are feeling pretty let down. Other Yes supporters, however, are vowing to
fight on for greater devolution and autonomy for Scotland.
But in any event now we know that in spite
of the many real uncertainties about what independence might bring, fed by the
scare tactics of the No campaign, and the last-minute three-party promise of
significant further devolution, 45% of the 85% of eligible Scottish voters were
still willing to leave the UK. Moreover,
some very large but as yet unmeasured proportion of those voting No were in
favour of further devolution, seeing that as a safer path to increased Scottish
autonomy than a precipitous leap into independence. In other words, it’s pretty clear that a
large majority of the people of Scotland want to see change from the status quo
of under-representation and dominance by the overly-centralised British
Government; the main disagreement is over how much and how fast.
For now, everyone, Yes- and No-supporters
alike, is watching Westminster to see if the powers that be will allow
themselves to be dragged into further devolution by Gordon Brown (the former UK
Labour Prime Minister who has taken this on).
The day after the Referendum, Alex Salmond announced he will step down
as head of the SNP and thus as First Minister of Scotland (from a US
perspective, think State Governor but in a parliamentary system). This appears
to be intended to allow his successor (probably Nicola Sturgeon) a free hand in
continuing to push for devolution, or failing that, to begin planning another
independence referendum. What all this means is that this is not over, for
either Scotland or the UK. Is anybody
ready for English Devolution?
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