In the past week, the world waited to find out if Scotland would stay in the United Kingdom or break and become an independent nation. As stated on Friday, Scotland will indeed stay in the United Kingdom. The vote came out to 55% for "no" and 45% for "yes". For many of those who wanted independence, they wanted to be free of the large central government of England and the power to set own regulations and taxes. The "no" campaign argued it wasn't worth the risk. The risks of being economically independent having to create own currency, government, and the shock of leaving the UK welfare system. After the results came out on Friday, a key leader of the independence movement and first minister in Scotland, Alex Salmond, resigned from his position. Many leaders of the "no" party have said that because of the vote that they hope that those in the central government will think about granting more powers to Scotland.
This event reminds me of an event in American history but on a more peaceful scale. The American Civil War was largely a debate over states rights. A reason the South left the Union wasn't only because the government was banning slavery, but more because the government wasn't just allowing states to choose if they were to be a free state or a slave state. Scotland's independence campaign was fueled by idea of more rights away from the central government. Though Scotland will remain apart of the UK, they were able to reach a settlement in a peaceful way exercising democracy.
Source:http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/19/world/europe/scotland-independence-vote/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
This does remind me of a part in American history. I agree on the fact that if they left the United Kingdom, setting up a government, currency, laws, taxes, is a lot to deal with and most likely not worth it.
ReplyDeleteMaddiermurphy pd. 6
Although Scotland deserves independence after the hundreds of years they have fought against the English, creating their own government and currency would've been a daunting task. The pound, being the strongest currency out there, is probably one of the key reasons they stayed part of the UK.
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