A new poll indicates there's a good chance that after Sept. 18, Great Britain will become smaller, because Scotland may vote to become an independent nation.
The poll sent shock waves through Britain as, for the first time,
Scots said they favored separation from the United Kingdom by 51 percent to 49 percent, National Review reports.
Just one month ago, those favoring separation were 14 points behind, while another poll, done
by Panelbase for Yes Scotland, found that those favoring remaining with Great Britain outnumbered those wishing for separation by 52 percent to 48 percent.
The sudden closeness of the poll numbers has set pro-unity politicians scrambling to issue promises of more Scottish control over Scotland's tax base and public spending in a desperate attempt to try to persuade voters to keep the union together.
Termed "devolution," it would mean transferring more power from London to Holyrood, seat of the Scottish government.
Douglas Alexander, British shadow foreign secretary, told a Glasgow University audience, "One of our challenges in the dozen days ahead is to find out new ways of setting out clearly to people just how the process for further devolution following a 'no' vote would work, how civic society would be engaged, and on what sort of a timetable the new powers will be delivered, whichever of the main parties wins the general election."
He framed the choice as "between greater devolution and irreversible separation,"
The Guardian reported.
The Guardian expects a huge turnout of up to 80 percent, or 3.4 million, swelled by voters 16-17 years old, who will be voting for the first time and are expected to favor separation.
President Barack Obama has weighed in against separation, telling a British member of Parliament, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," reported
Scotland Now.
The implications of separation involve a political black eye for British Prime Minister David Cameron as being the "man who lost Scotland," a possible wait of up to five years to rejoin the European Union, possible impetus for a British withdrawal from the EU, questions about whether Scotland could retain the British pound as currency, and a likely conservative shift in the British government, as 59 Labor Party Scottish MPs would leave the House of Commons, giving the Tories a 20-seat majority, National Review notes.
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