Congratulations to Scotland on its Declaration of Dependence.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) September 19, 2014
"Let us not dwell on distance we've fallen short; let us dwell on distance we've travelled,” said Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the independence movement at a press conference after accepting the defeat. "I think the process by which we have made our decision as a nation reflects enormous credit upon Scotland. A turnout of 86% is one of the highest of the democratic world, in any election or any referendum in history." The Better Together campaign and the "No" vote resoundingly won Thursday's referendum about whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom. However, with about 45% of the citizens voting "Yes", British Prime Minister David Cameron is going to be having a hard time keeping the Scottish MPs happy without giving them more powers and more autonomy.
The result wasn't exactly predicted by social media in the run-up to this week's vote. The official Twitter account for the Yes campaign has an impressive 112,000 followers, more than double that of 43,200 for Better Together. On Facebook, the Yes campaign page again beat out the No campaign page with 334,000 likes compared to 222,000. Being more vociferous online, doesn't always translate into offline results. The hastags #ScotlandDecides and #indyref were trending all throughout the night and in the early hours of the Scottish morning, #ScotlandVotesNo began to trend. Here are other reactions on Twitter.
BREAKING: British government to allow Scots who voted 'Yes' to create new independent country in Palestine — Pan-Arabia Enquirer (@arabiaenquirer) September 19, 2014
Here is how the Indians reacted on Twitter.
The No Campaign might have succeeded but with 46% Yes votes and counting, Westminster can hardly claim to have won this. #ScotlandDecides — Pragya Tiwari (@PragyaTiwari) September 19, 2014
Scotland is staying in the UK, dashing Sunny Deol's hopes for a Gadar sequel. — Rohan (@mojorojo) September 19, 2014
The watershed moment of breaking 307 years of imperialism passed as a disappointment for lovers of freedom. #ScotlandDecides — Mayank Jain (@Mayank1029) September 19, 2014
#Britain survives #IndyRef. But, one wonders whether with around 45% of #Scots actually wanting to break free, if this the end of the story — Abhirup Bhunia (@abhirup1) September 19, 2014
Will Texas secessionists be inspired after this?
Don't let #Scotland discourage you, Texas. Go for it. — Christopher Moore (@TheAuthorGuy) September 19, 2014
This may be the first and only time I'm relieved a country has voted NO to independence. Genuinely do believe Scotland better off — Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) September 19, 2014