SCOTLAND UNITED

For centuries the United Kingdom has always comprised of four wonderful countries: England, Scotland, Wales and (sorry to sound biased) Northern Ireland. However this was possibly about to change forever.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) had been talking of independence from the UK. They finally almost got their wish when on the 18th September, in one of the most historic events to happen in the UK for a long time,  the Scottish people voted on whether they would gain their independence.

The spokesperson for independence was SNP leader Alex Salmond. Unfortunately a lot of people believed his reasons were flawed. One of them being that they could rely on oil revenue for funding, which would be fine except oil runs out eventually.

On the flip side we had the people in the "NO" camp, or the "Better Together" campaign. Their spokesman being Alistair Darling, with support from prominent politicians like Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown gave a great speech on keeping the UK together (see link below). It was sincere, it was  passionate, and it was brilliant.

Gordon Brown's impassioned 'Better Together'  speech 

On the day in question, the people went out to vote like never before. The turnout was 

84.59% which is bigger than in any previous election. And the result couldn't have been closer.  Results were:

No    = 55%     2,001, 926

Yes   = 45%    1,617, 989

The "NO" vote may have been partly due to David Cameron's promise to give more power to the Scottish parliament. Let's hope he does because if the Scottish ever decide to do this again, they will not be fooled a second time.

And this event has had an effect on places other than Scotland as they saw Scotland choose their destiny, it gave them the courage to fight for theirs. Places like Catalonia in Spain, and the rest of the UK, including Jersey, were all looking to Scotland and saying, "If they can do it, why can't we?".

And that is a very fair question.

And where does Scotland go from here? Nobody knows for sure, but let's hope it works out well for them. I wish them good luck.

One thing is for sure. The UK will NEVER be the same again.