The vote went against the citizens who wanted to separate from the U.K., keeping the union intact.
Many people thought it was a Quixotic venture to attempt to separate from Great Britain, but win or lose, who could doubt the tenacity and vision of a peoples whose national animal is, get this, The Unicorn!
Since my ancestors, Clan McCormick, a sept of Clan MacLean (Mull Isl.) were essentially chased out of Scotland by the Brits, I have followed the free Scotland movement closely and was watching with great interest to see the results of the vote.
Although the union of 1707 is commonly spoken of as a confederation, there were a number of wars and smaller skirmishes over the centuries between the middle ages and 1700 (Scotland was founded as a kingdom in 843) so the question of just how voluntary the union was is up in the air.
If you look at the map of Great Britain from a geologic standpoint you will find that south of Hadrian’s Wall most of the rather meager mineral wealth of tin and coal have been mined out.
To the north, Scotland, lies one of the largest oil and gas fields in the world, making the small population of Scotland one of the richest per capita on earth.
Nevertheless, many in Scotland feel that even with recent changes giving them a bit more say in how the country is run, Scotland always seems to get the short end of the stick so to speak, which led to a renewal in the call for independence.
While some have warned that this separation would cause many problems for Scotland, including the need for a new currency, or military protection, one has to wonder just who would be invading Scotland? And, since people in many countries use the U.S. $ and other national currencies, not their own, can it really be a major problem if the Chancellor of the Exchequer refuses to let a free Scotland continue to use the Pound?
Ancestry can be a strange thing. I never paid much attention to where my people came from until later in life, feeling I had done plenty on my own and didn’t need to rely on the accomplishments of some distant ancestor, especially since we all come from the same two, a real Adam and Eve, both in Africa, as shown by a massive genetic research project conducted by The National Geographic Society.
The Scientific Adam and Eve
But when I did notice how many people with my name are currently journalists or writers, I also thought back to my lady friends over the years and every one of them was a Celt. In fact, my wife and editor of 35 years turned out to belong to a Clan also, even though I had never heard of her last name being associated with Scotland.
It obviously wasn’t anything intentional but it still happened, and those two facts, along with the fact that many famous Scots were also engineers and scientists from the model of Sherlock Holmes (Dr. Joseph Bell) to the engineer who perfected the steam engine (Watt), and the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell), and the telegraph (Morse – at least the telegraph code) etc.
As for non-Scots, we can be assured that Scotland’s greatest export, whiskey, will continue to supply the world with the finest alcoholic beverage in existence!
