The returning officer for Fife declared at 06.09am and he stated that 114,148 votes had been cast for YES, but 139,788 for NO.
That put NO over the winning line.
The Better Together campaign had triumphed by a margin of 55% to 45%.
On a turnout of 86% that means that 1.6million people in Scotland voted for independence on September 18th 2014.
Moreover the cities of Dundee and Glasgow voted YES.
However, the rest of the country rejected the proposition that Scotland should be an independent country.
In the final days of the campaign the three leaders of the main Westminster parties joined together to make a ‘vow’ to the Scots that if they rejected independence then additional powers would be granted to the Holyrood parliament.
Moreover they promised that these changes would be quickly enacted.
This seems to have been done largely on the hoof by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband without very much consultation with their backbenchers.
This seems especially true for the Conservatives.
To many observers it looked desperate and panicked as the momentum seemed to be with Yes Scotland.
It now remains to be seen what additional powers, if any, will be delivered to Holyrood.
I had written elsewhere that a narrow NO victory was the messiest of all possible outcomes for the Westminster political elite.
A 55-45% victory is within my definition of ‘narrow’.
Almost half of Scottish people voted to leave the United Kingdom and the country’s greatest city voted for independence.
These are facts.
The Labour party were the main local force in the victorious Better Together effort.
In Dundee and Glasgow they may find that the electorate, defeated in the referendum, will make their presence felt at the ballot box in the next Holyrood election.
Moreover Prime Minister Cameron will find that the promises he hastily made in the final days of the campaign will now be called in.
This point was emphasized by First Minister Alex Salmond when he made his concession speech a few minutes after the Fife result was declared.
He stated that he would contact Prime Minister Cameron after he had finished his speech and then he would hold a press conference later today to reflect on that conversation.
Scotland remains within the United Kingdom for now, but the details of the deal with Westminster are about to be altered by realpolitik.
That means that the totality of relationships within these islands are about to get a wee nudge.
Phil is an author,blogger, freelance journalist and writer based in Ireland. He is an active member of the NUJ with a special interest in online journalism. He was also a constintuency organizer for the SNP in Glasgow Shettleston constituency in the 1987 UK General election. He was also the secretary of the Scottish Branch of the Celtic League during that time. A journalist with An Phoblacht from 1999- 2006 his work under the pen name “Mick Derrig” covered a wide range of topics.
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
