sirmoonie wrote on Sep 21
st, 2014 at 11:21pm:
Bitch wrote on Sep 21
st, 2014 at 3:21pm:
Young people rebel and they get older and mellow out but new young people take over the rebellion. Not saying it is a good idea breaking away from the UK, but everyone will not be satisfied with the outcome.
I looked up some things on the demographic breakdown. Apparently 16-17 year olds were allowed to vote on this (which is insane),
and they went 71% for YES. The majority of YES votes, however, were low income areas. Some fucking irony there - who do they they think signs all the dole and welfare checks?
All that said, youthful "rebellion" did not play a role in this. Scottish people are very proud of their country and they should be (one of top 3 races on planet). That pride has led to great things in 95% of cases, but maybe that fervor got too much here. Leaving the U.K. would, ironically, be almost unpatriotic.
By the way, the Scottish black vote was 90% for NO.
This bit (in bold) actually isnt actually true.
YouGov just published some analysis of the vote, and of the five age categories (16-24, 25-39, 40-59, 60-64 and over 65's) the only one with a majority of 'YES' voters was the 25-39 group (about 54%). A narrow majority of voters under 25 (just over 50%) voted 'NO', so if a majority of 16-17 were yes voters, it wouldnt have been by very much.
About 52% between 40-59, 55% between 60-64 and about 66% over 65 were 'NO' voters.
So, the 60-64 group was pretty reflective of the overall national vote.
Very high turnout, but if about 15% of the electorate still didnt even bother to vote, its hardly much of a ringing endorsement for anyone who wanted change.
It is, as you say, insane to let 16 and 17 year olds vote on this. Especially as they cant vote in any other elections (there will be Westminster elections next May and they'll be disenfranchised again as they will be in Scottish government elections, unless the law there is changed). Allowing them to vote was a demand by the Scottish National Party, based on the understandable assumption that they'd be far more likely to vote for independence. It didn't work.