Voting has already started, experts expect upwards of 95% turn-out rate, which is frickin' unbelievable. That in and of itself is a victory. I'm fascinated by this vote as it could lead to a re-configuration of many, many countries, as so many nations were merely brought into existence to consolidate political power with no regard for any commonalities. In other words, the important "commonalities" were the vested interests of monarchs and power brokers. The idea of large nation state was "sold" on fabricated ideas of culture, religion, language, heritage, etc., but the idea of founding a nation based exclusively on common culture or ethnicity comes from Romanticism in the early 19th century. Monarchs and power brokers recognized the power of this and immediately sought to fortify universal language at the expense of regional languages and dialects. Skip forward almost 2 centuries and in a globalized era, the regional sticks out like a sore thumb. On a practical scale, when you have politicians and business clamoring to join larger groups (like the European Union), the peripheral groups speak up and demand to be heard. "Spain is now part of Europe" brings about "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 21% of us don't even speak Spanish as a first language. Let's re-define Spain"... Ditto in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, etc. Anywho... I predict "No" wins by 1.5-2%. So it's frickin' amazing
There will be no exit polling done. At all. Nobody is paying for one to be done. Grumble, grumble, grumble...
And here I thought my google skills are weak because I couldn't find any. Thank you for that piece of information
The Scots said No, 55-45%. Up until a couple of months ago, independence never polled above 35%, from what I heard on NPR yesterday. 84.5% turn out MSNBC's website stole my thread title ("Not Scot Free"). Those bastards!!!
I hope Andy Murray is absolutely pelted with strawberries by the crowd at Winbledon next year. Alex Salmond should think himself lucky that he isn't hung, drawn and quartered!
On NPR this morning they were saying that this would waken the sleeping giant that is English nationalism. Cameron had to offer the Scots a LOT in order to sweeten the "No" vote. That combined with the gut check of 45% of Scots rejecting the union means that there will be a backlash. I sincerely hope that all parties focus on actively healing wounds, actively looking within to see how they can make a more perfect union instead of lashing out. If not, then that 45% Yes will grow about as quickly as it did from 35%.