Scotland has voted to stay in the United Kingdom (UK) after rejecting independence with 30 out of the country’s 32 council areas declaring in vote: the “No” side has an unassailable lead of 1,877,252 votes to 1,512,688.
The winning total needed was 1,852,828. Nationally, the margin of victory is about 55% to 45%.
The vote is the culmination of a two-year campaign. Talks will now begin on devolving more powers to Scotland.
This margin of victory is some three points greater than that anticipated by the final opinion polls. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest council area and the third largest city in Britain, voted in favour of independence by 194,779 to 169,347, with Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire also voting “Yes.”
But Edinburgh, the nation’s capital, rejected independence by 194,638 to 123,927, while Aberdeen City voted “No” by a margin of more than 20,000 votes. There have also been big wins for the pro-UK campaign in many other areas. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who led the pro-independence “Yes” campaign, is expected to make a statement from his official residence at Bute House in Edinburgh at 10:00 BST (11:00 GMT). In his first public comment since the results started coming in, Mr Salmond tweeted: “Well done to Glasgow, our Commonwealth city, and to the people of Scotland for such incredible support.”
His deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, conceded defeat with a handful of results still to be declared, saying there was a “real sense of disappointment that we have fallen narrowly short of securing a ‘Yes’ vote”.
She said that the projected result was “a deep personal and political disappointment” but said “the country has been changed forever”.
Ms Sturgeon said she would work with “anyone in any way” to secure more powers for Scotland.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I’ve spoken to Alistair Darling (head of the pro-UK Better Together campaign) – and congratulated him on a well-fought campaign.”
Mr Cameron is expected to respond to Scotland’s decision in a live televised address following the final result
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands,including the North Isles and the Herbrides.
Edinburgh, the country’s capital and second-largest city, was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual, and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, was once one of the world’s leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea,containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe’s oil capital.
The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. Having entered into a personal union with the kingdoms of England (which included what is now England and Wales) and Ireland following James VI’s succession to the English and Irish thrones in 1603, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with England on 1 May 1707 to create a single Kingdom of Great Britain. This union resulted from the Treaty of Union agreed in 1706 and enacted by the twin Acts of Union passed by the Parliaments of both countries, despite popular opposition and anti-union riots in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere. Great Britain itself subsequently entered into a political union with Ireland on 1 January 1801 to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. [myad]
