Pensioners kept Scotland in the UK

Sep22
by admin on September 22, 2014 at 9:48 am
Posted In: Buncrana, Carndonagh, Derry, Donegal, Greencastle, L/Derry, Letterkenny, Moville, Redcastle

Scottish Referendum

It is interesting looking at an analysis of those who voted Yes and those who voted No in the recent Scottish Independence Referendum.

It’s pretty clear, now, that it was those over 55 and particularly, pensioners, who kept Scotland as part of the UK.

Those of 55 years of age and under voted 55% to 45% Yes.

Those over 55 voted 65% to 35% No.

They won the day.

So, Scotland became the only country ever to vote against its own Independence.

I wonder what William Wallace would have thought of that.

Older Voters

It is even more pronounced the older Scottish voters are.

Whilst the 55-64 year-olds voted 53% to 47% for No, those over 65 voted 73%to 27% for No.

Indeed, if you discounted the vote of all pensioners it would have been 53% Yes to 47% No.

The pensioners were obviously spooked by scare stories about their pensions and the NHS being under threat in an Independent Scotland.

It was nonsense but they weren’t taking any chances.

Their grandchildren will feel they put that above the future of their children and grandchildren.

The Future

So, what about the future?

Well, amongst the new voters, the 16-17 year-olds, Yes won by 71% to 29% – the biggest winning Yes margin. The biggest margin overall was the pensioners who voted 73% to 27% for No.

I think we can see that the demographics favour a future Independent Scotland.

However, will they ever get a chance again? They were only given this chance as David Cameron etc. thought they would say No by a large margin.

Ever Again?

If they thought the Scottish public would say Yes would they have given them the referendum?

Tory backbenchers are already saying that they should have had to get 60% or more to be able to break away.

The Spanish Government are trying to block the Catalans from voting in a referendum for Independence and are saying that they would have to win a majority of all the Spanish people to get Independence.

Scotland had its chance and the pensioners put a veto on it. It will probably be a generation before they get another and it may be rigged in some kind of way so that they have to get much more than 50%.

However, it is coming. With each year that goes by there will be fewer of those  older voters and more of the younger voters.