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Early results favor 'No' side in Scotland independence referendum

36 Comments
By JILL LAWLESS

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Cracaphat, Boudicea (or Boudicca) was Queen of the Iceni, a tribe based in what is East Anglia (in England) today. She was nothing to do with Scotland and fought the Romans long before the modern-day concept of England even existed. So I think she can sleep in peace.

iLikeTurtles - spot on. The Scots have got what many of them wouldn't admit that they actually wanted. More and more special treatment, without the responsibility of independence, but with continued recourse to blame the despicable English for everything and anything that goes wrong. Canny Scots, indeed.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

iLikeTurtles,

You forgot the free university education. How's social mobility in the rest of the bedroom taxed Sceptred Isle these days?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yes those poor oppressed Scots have had their dreams and freedom crushed by their colonial masters, and will have to go back to their free healthcare, free military protection, buoyant economy and substantial social care. They could have had so much more....massive cuts in all those services, a currency they have no control over and major unemployment, for example.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

All those committed Yes voters who are having trouble accepting the result, heed the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson; "Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted".

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

@Davestrousers If you look at the electoral map, the entire country looks blue due to the sparsely populated Tory shires. I prefer to look at the number of seats. Andrew Rawnsley put it well:

'The schism is not new, but it has now become more acute. The 2010 election drew the fault line in especially stark form. Under the very southern David Cameron, the Tories took just enough seats to push their man over the line and into Number 10, but ran out of juice the further you travelled up the M1 or M6. Of the 158 seats in the three northern English regions, only 43 have a Conservative MP. The Tories hold just two seats in the north-east and have only one MP in the whole of Scotland.'

Given the austerity measures introduced by Gideon it seems likely that the Tory vote will drop even further in the north in 2015. If you do the maths, that means the Tories currently hold 27% of the northern seats and I'll put my house on that dropping at least below a quarter next year, possibly down to a fifth. The Tories are all but wiped out in Scotland and Wales and are sinking fast in the English north. I can't see how you can make a case that there is no divide here. The Tories are clearly a party of the English south, and as you'd expect, cater to their interests. As for where to draw the line, it's not the first time I've heard Lucabrasi's idea and I'd vote for it. I can't express enough how much the Tories are utterly despised by the majority of northerners and how much bad feeling is held particularly by people my age and older for those who voted for the architect of this bitter divide in three elections.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Now that would be a liberal, progressive nation I'd like to live in, away from the Tory south. And I bet a referendum would return a resounding "Yes" in that case...'

Didn't the north already have a devolution referendum? And the result was a pretty strong no.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

'The peasants are back in their lane'

I think 'plebs' or 'oiks' is more appropriate than 'peasants'. David and Gideon may have come into contact with the lower orders at Oxford. I can't imagine they were smashing up restaurants every night in the Bullingdon Club.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Can lucabrasi or jimizo take a look at the 2010 election map and tell me where the north south divide is? There's red in london and blue up north. Seems to me the contrast is urban rural, so how would you carve up the country?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

From the start it looked like London was going to make as many promises and/or put on as much pressure as they had to to keep the vote at 55-45%. If they had really wanted to they could have made it 70-30%. So all this talk of it being close to me is all very relative. Hopefully they do actually do better by the Scots from now. In the case of Quebec for example after a similar result the Canadian government gave with one hand but took away with the left and Quebec gained very little

0 ( +1 / -1 )

'As a northerner, I'd like to see a movement for independence from Westminster for the whole of North Britain: Scotland, Cumbria, Northumberland, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Now that would be a liberal, progressive nation I'd like to live in, away from the Tory south. And I bet a referendum would return a resounding "Yes" in that case...'

I fully agree. England has been horrifically divided since the 80s. Scotland has given Westminster a powerful kick up the arse even though they voted to stay. Keep the pressure on.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The myth of the Tory south. There a lot of red where I come from. Devolution for the other UK countries and a federal UK is the future.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

As a northerner, I'd like to see a movement for independence from Westminster for the whole of North Britain: Scotland, Cumbria, Northumberland, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Now that would be a liberal, progressive nation I'd like to live in, away from the Tory south. And I bet a referendum would return a resounding "Yes" in that case....

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Besides anything else, it would have been a massive act of ingratitude if Scotland had voted for independence. Scottish voters are over-represented at Westminster, have their own Parliament (although Salmond tends to blame the English if anything goes wrong under his leadership) and have greater per-head public expenditure lavished on them than the inhabitants of the rest of the UK - by deliberate design. This is not an occuppied, oppressed minority as some of the nuttier nationalists try and describe it, it's a flourishing and powerful nation within a successful country, and yet they always want more and more from Westminster. This result will help them get it, so I'm not sure what the nationalists are bleating about - they'll be better off anyway.

The people have spoken, and they have told Salmond that they want to remain part of the UK and they don't believe his plainly absurd, unworkable visions of independence. Nor, I suspect, did they warm to the baying SNP mobs who characterised the end of the Yes campaign.

Scotland stays British and this is good for everyone, whether they realise it or not.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Salmond couldn't even be gracious in defeat. Says it all really.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Interesting speech from David Cameron. A commitment to honour the latest commitments to Scotland very quickly but more tellingly a commitment to allow England more say in its own affairs. We could be on the cusp of a revolution.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Very happy with this outcome, which is a victory both for democracy and common sense.

The Yes campaign did remarkably well considering that it had no viable currency plan, and made promises (such as staying in the EU) which it would never have been able to keep, not to mention the refusal to answer straight questions. Yes would've done better if they'd spent less time whining about supposed BBC bias (complete nonsense) and got on with the campaign. Only those with nothing to lose economically could rationally vote to bankrupt their own country.

The United Kingdom remains united and Scotland will continue to be a proud nation within it. This is to be celebrated, and the independence debate now put to bed for a very, very long time.

Happy days.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

No matter the vote, about half the people will not be happy.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Alex Salmond has just accepted defeat. A very poor speech full of demands. No change there then.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I admire the voter turnout. This is an ideal example of democracy.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I'm not surprised at the results. The possibility of closing down several major Royal Navy bases in Scotland and the real threat of both RBS and Lloyds Bank moving a lot of operations out of Scotland--which could take tens of thousands of various highly-skilled jobs out of Scottish soil--must have scared a lot of people in Scotland into voting no.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Dare not to dream, all you little people.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Fear:1 Hope:0.

The ruling class has won.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

You can watch the live results here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11106917/Scottish-independence-live-results-as-they-happen.html

0 ( +0 / -0 )

With 17 out of 32 council declaring it is 44% yes (2, 521,441) 56% no (15, 670,354) with target 1,857,276.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Catriona Renton of BBC Scotland reporting on the South Lanarkshire count tweets:

"A trend amongst spoilt papers here is "No" written in the "No" box which is being taken to be a double negative but doesn't count as one for "Yes" either."

Are "Yes" voters not doing the same? The general trend appears to be "No" being more likely in middle class areas and "Yes" more likely in working class areas.

Quote of the day, "It was Brown what won it"

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"It would have been a complete economic disaster, among other things for Scotland and a mess for England and the UK to clean up."

Where you see a mess, businessmen see opportunity. In order for any economy to boom, there must be problems or voids people are willing to work and pay to solve and fill. Change is money.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Looks like Edinburgh is going to be a 60-40 in favour of No. After three tiny declarations the Nos are ahead.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

A Yougov pollster has stated a 99% certainty of a no vote. 54% no/46% yes is the bookies favourite.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Hoping to hear a "No" outcome later today...

1 ( +4 / -3 )

There are a million examples of blood drenched war fought to gain independence. If for no other reason, I hope Scotland becomes independent just to be one more rare example of independence peacefully gained.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

"As the polls closed and the vote counting began, there was a quiet thrill of history in the making"

Absolute nonsense. It would have been a complete economic disaster, among other things for Scotland and a mess for England and the UK to clean up. The result looks like it is going to be around 53+ for the "No" camp but in any case, they seem to be winning as predicted. Will be glad for many reasons. Andy Murray is making more foolish statements in a week. He says it is a positive campaign. Er, what?! This couldn't have been further from the truth. We know you are a sportsman but come on, dude! The whole campaign has been centered around Salmond's personal bid to become PM of Scotland and the fools in London have been taken for a ride. Thank goodness common sense will prevail. Want to laugh loudly in the face of Alex Salmond... Goodbye, loser!

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Andy Murray tweeted yesterday:

"Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!"

0 ( +3 / -3 )

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