The United Kingdom became the Reunited Kingdom on Friday after the historic referendum saw independence for Scotland spurned. Even so, the world will not be the same again for the global power of yesteryears. The 55 per cent vote for staying in the UK brings relief, at least temporary, to the financial world. Scotland itself can breathe easy because it would have struggled as a new country with drooping North Sea oil reserves and an unpredictable search for a new currency.
The world, too, would have spent a more restful night Friday as the possible implications of a “Yes” vote would not have affected only Scotland. The geopolitical reverberations may not have been major in the case of the UK, but beyond it the danger of separatism would have been terrible. Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, and his campaign for freedom on the lines of a modern Robert the Bruce has accepted defeat, but demands for autonomy in many things are bound to spiral upwards.
What the world feared was the possible domino effect of a Scottish separation. Thanks to the close-run referendum, the demand for independence has already become strident in Catalonia in Spain, and in countries where there are already regional pressures for liberties beyond autonomy. The arguments for such referendums sound democratic. However, can the modern world afford to spur separatist movements?
in, say, northern Sri Lanka, or Kashmir for that matter? As an old saying goes, togetherness has goodness in it.
