Well That Was Disappointing.

Despite attempts by the Daily Telegraph newspaper to goose the ratings the people of Scotland have - to the surprise of absolutely no-one - voted to remain as part of the United Kingdom (UK) by 55.3% to 44.7% which is a winning margin of around 380,000 votes.

This of course was a done deal from the moment that a referendum was agreed. Essentially the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond was offered something called "Devolution Max" which would have seen the ties between Scotland and the UK loosened to the point they could easily be broken in about 5-10 years. However Salmond turned this down in favour of allowing 16&17 year olds to vote in the hope that their naivety would ensure a straight independence vote despite him having no plan of what to do if that actually happened.

As a result the UK has had to go to great efforts to narrow the gap in order to give the independence campaign a veneer of credibility in the hope that everybody internationally would actually notice that the referendum was taking place So for example there was the poll commissioned and published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper on September 7th 2014 (7/9/14) that entirely falsely claimed that the independence campaign was in the lead giving it much needed momentum. Then figures like the UK Prime Minister David Cameron headed to Scotland knowing full well that his unpopularity would create a swing towards the independence campaign. Although I think the announcement of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy was purely aimed at the MH17 crash investigation the questions over whether the Queen supported the union was intended to have the same effect. It also appears that the UK engineered the killing of Scottish born Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) hostage David Haines in a effort to tag the referendum onto what is currently the big global story while creating a bit of a backlash amongst Scottish voters.

If anything the UK did its job a little two well with what should have been a victory of 70% plus falling to just 55%. That's a shame because a defeat that resounding should have been enough to rid Scottish politics of Alex Salmond once and for all because not since Arthur Scargill and the miners strike has a British political campaign suffered so badly from such p*ss poor leadership.

Anyway it now seems that the UK is going to impose devolution max on Scotland anyway because now the oil is running out it seems everyone wants rid of the charity case. Salmond of course will consider it his achievement.

(Originally Posted) 10:40 on 19/9/14 (UK date).