On the 18th of September, 2014, the people of Scotland were faced with a very simple,
but incredibly important question - should Scotland be an independent country?
This is the United Kingdom - comprised of Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Scotland is a country, and has been for centuries, but it's not an independent country, because
its part of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom.
The UK's government is located in Westminster, in London.
The government is elected like this... the country is divided into 650 constituencies,
which vote for a Member of Parliament through a first-past-the-post voting system. The winner
becomes MP for that constituency, and the party with the most seats
at the House of Commons wins the election.
Although it must win by an out-right majority (i.e. have more seats than all other parties
combined). This didn't happen in the last election in 2010, which is known as a hung
parliament. On this occasion the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government
with David Cameron as Prime Minister and Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister.
So despite only winning in one constituency in Scotland, the Tories were in power.
Now, Scotland also has its own devolved parliament since devolution in 1999, in Holyrood, Edinburgh.
But the Scottish government only has control over certain issues.
In the 2011 Scottish election, the Scottish National Party won a clear majority, with
leader Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland.
One of the main goals of the SNP is for Scotland to gain independence from the United Kingdom.
And in 2012, it was successfully negotiated with the UK government that a referendum would
take place, in which the people of Scotland could choose whether or not to become an independent country
Originally, Alex Salmond proposed three options on the ballot paper. A third 'middle' option,
the so-called "devo-max" option, which would give much more powers to the Scottish government,
while remaining part of the United Kingdom.
At this point, opinion polls showed that those who wanted independence were a small minority.
And perhaps overly-confident of a No vote, David Cameron insisted it would be a simple
Yes/No vote.
So with the question and date set, the campaigning begun.
Campaigning for a Yes vote was obviously First Minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond, and
his campaign - Yes Scotland.
Campaigning for a "No, thanks" vote, was the Better Together campaign, started by Labour
MP Alistair Darling
There were many televised debates, especially in the few months leading to the vote.
I'll look at some of the key issues that were discussed.
Without doubt, the main issue that was talked about - currency.
What currency would an independent Scotland use? Currently, the whole of the UK uses the
Pound Sterling, and Alex Salmond's proposal was for Scotland to continue using the pound,
and enter into a currency union with the rest of the UK, using the Bank of England as their
central bank.
However, all 3 main UK parties leaders (all of whom are opposed to independence)
said that there would be no currency union in the event of a Yes vote.
Alex Salmond however, seemed undeterred by this, believing it to be a scare tactic from
the No-Campaign, and in the event of a Yes vote, the UK would negotiate a currency union,
saying it would be beneficial to both given their import/export relationship.
He also said that if the UK were unwilling to share the UK's financial assets (ie - the
Bank of England), then Scotland would have no legal liability to their share of the UK
national debt - at a cost of around £100 billion to the rest of the UK.
Alistair Darling replied to this by saying this was a terrible thing for Alex Salmond
to say, as this would be considered by the international community as Scotland defaulting
on their debt, making them an untrustworthy nation and that no-one would lend to them
in the future.
The National Health Service was another hotly-debated issue. Scotland's branch of the NHS is already
independent through devolution, so Yes Scotland said nothing would change, and that healthcare
would remain free at the point of use in an independent Scotland. Alex Salmond often mentioned
the fact that sections of the NHS in England were being privitised, and that this could
have a knock-on effect to Scotland's NHS budget.
The No-campaign say that Scotland would be unable to maintain their current level of
spending without the UK. And just days before the vote, documents leaked to the media showed
a £400 million gap in Scotland's NHS budget.
North Sea Oil was another issue at the forefront of the independence discussion.
Scotland would be entitled to 91% of the UK's oil and gas fields, given their geographic locations.
But there were disagreements about how much there is and how long it will last. Alex Salmond
said North Sea oil would make up about 15% of an independent Scotland's tax revenues.
However, oil production has been in decline since its peak in the late 90's, and many
have warned about such reliance on a volatile commodity such as oil.
Trident was a very controversial topic of debate. That is, the nuclear weapons located
at Faslane, in Scotland. Alex Salmond wants rid of the these "weapons of mass destruction"
as he calls them, for moral and financial reasons.
Trident already costs the UK £2 billion per year, about 5% of the total defence budget,
and the government is looking to replace them, which could cost about £100 billion over
the next 40 years.
But moving Trident would have been extremely expensive, and may not have been possible
until the year 2028, given that there's nowhere to move the nuclear missiles to at this point.
Some have criticised Alex Salmond for saying he was morally against Trident, yet he wanted
Scotland to join NATO.
Tax and public spending was a source of much disagreement between the campaigns. Does Scotland
benefit or suffer from being part of the UK?
Better Together predicted that in the long-run, Scotland would be £1,400 per-person worse
off independent, but the Yes-campaign said Scotland would be £1,000 better off.
Currenty, public spending per-capita is higher in Scotland than the UK as a whole. However,
Scotland also pays more tax per-person as well. 9.9% of UK tax revenues are generated
in Scotland, despite only making up 8.4% of the population.
So, taken out of context, it looks like Scotland would be much better off being independent.
If spending and tax remained the same, every person in Scotland would be nearly £500 better off
But with context, things are much less clear-cut...
Scotland is far more reliant on North Sea Oil than the UK, something which won't last
forever, and is in decline.
On top of this, Scotland has an ageing population, moreso than the rest of the UK. This leads
to higher healthcare and pension costs, as well as a shrinking working-age population.
European Union membership is again an issue that has caused much disagreement. Alex Salmond
wanted Scotland to join the EU, and thought membership would be a simple process, given
that Scotland has already been a member of the EU for many years, albeit as part of the UK
However, many believe that EU membership would have been a very difficult process, may have taken
several years, or may not have happened at all. In fact, the President of the European Commission
said it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for an independent Scotland
to gain EU membership, given that it requires a unanimous agreement from all member states,
and many have argued that Spain would not support Scotland's membership, because of
the situation in Catalonia.
Alex Salmond's vision for an independent Scotland were laid out in his 650 page white paper
- entitled Scotland's Future. Independence would have not been immediate, he planned
for an 18 month negotiation period between Scotland and the UK.
Just a week or so before the people were to have their vote, David Cameron offered the
3rd option originally suggested by Alex Salmond, the Devo-Max option, perhaps panicking that
a Yes vote may actually happen, as opinion polls had significantly tightened to a near
50/50 split. But it was "too little, too late" said the Yes campaign, and the Yes/No vote
remained unchanged.
Just two days before the vote, all 3 main UK party leaders made a vow, to give Scotland
more powers in the event of a No vote. And that a vote for "no" was not a vote for no change
So the referendum day came and went, and with a record-breaking 85% turnout, the people
of Scotland voted No. With 55% voting in favour of staying part of the United Kingdom
Just hours after the result was released, Alex Salmond informed the media of his intention
to resign as First Minister. Stating that his time was nearly over, "but for Scotland,
the campaign continues, and the dream shall never die..."