Scotland Votes to Remain With United Kingdom

Pro-independence supporter shown above

Scotland voted to maintain its 300 year union with Great Britain in a referendum last week that saw 55% of Scottish voters reject a 'Yes' vote to independence.

In an early sign that the nationalists were facing defeat, [pro-independence Scottish politician Alex] Salmond did not attend his local count in Aberdeenshire and instead flew back to Edinburgh by private jet alongside his wife.

Speaking at 6.30am, he accepted the verdict of the people as he conceded defeat in the referendum on Scottish independence.

However, he said that the people of Scotland had only rejected independence “at this stage”, suggesting he believes that another referendum is possible in the future.

With national turnout expected to reach around 85 per cent, Unionists celebrated overwhelming victories in their traditional strongholds such as Orkney, Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders.

Edinburgh voted against independence by 61 per cent to 39 per cent.

Better Together also had huge victories in East Lothian, where they had a 24 per cent lead, Stirling, where they won by 20 per cent, and Midlothian, where the margin of victory was 12 per cent.

A 'Yes' vote would've been devastating to Tory PM David Cameron's government, who had been actively lobbying for unity in the run-up to the vote- Cameron likely would've forever been known as the Prime Minister who oversaw the dissolution of Great Britain while in office.

The Pound Sterling, which had taken a beating ahead of the September 18th balloting, quickly bounced back to 2-year highs versus the Euro before the votes came in.

Once considered a longshot, polls showed that the pro Independence movement was gaining ground in the weeks leading up to the balloting. Pro-independence politicians such as Salmond had promised to use revenue from Scotland's offshore oil reserves in the North Sea to fund schools, healthcare, infrastructure and social programs [loosely modeled after Norway's sovereign wealth fund from their portion of the North Sea oilfields- NANESB] - even though its widely believed that supplies are dwindling. However, even with the declining oil reserves, Scotland has forestry, agriculture, whiskey production and tourism contributing to their economy would be the 14th wealthiest nation per-capita.

Multinational oil firm BP [NYSE- BP] was threatened with nationalization of their Scottish holdings by a Salmond ally should Scotland vote in favor of independence, leading the CEOs of BP and Shell to speak out against Scottish independence.