SINCE turning 17, I have voted in two referendums and three general elections. Only one had the outcome I voted for. And it is the only vote I regret.
I remember when the result of the independence referendum came through, I breathed a sigh of relief. The future had seemed so uncertain for months and I was glad to have some stability back.
It wasn’t that I was overjoyed, I didn’t have much of a sense of British identity and I didn’t care for a lot of the Unionist narrative.
But independence had felt like a terrifying road filled with unseen potholes and sharp bends, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Eight months later I had an SNP badge pinned to my coat and was voting for the party in my first General Election.
When the referendum took place, I was only a few months out of school and had just moved to Glasgow for university. The week I moved there, the city was a patchwork of yellow, white and blue.
It stood in stark contrast to where I grew up. Aberdeen, while it certainly had its independence supporters, seemed to have been a mostly Unionist city. Certainly, everyone I knew was voting No, and I think this formed a large part of my decision.
Today, the independence debate feels increasingly like a left v right argument. After a decade of Conservative governments and with a deceased Scottish Labour Party, being a Unionist seems to imply you’re also a Tory.
When the referendum took place, this wasn’t the case. There were plenty of people around me voting No who were left-wing Labour supporters, who didn’t want to leave the Union for justifiable reasons. The most important being they didn’t want to leave the European Union.
For me, this felt like the strongest argument. Why would we want to leave something we mostly trusted like the EU, for an alternative that felt full of uncertainties? It wasn’t that we were flag-waving Unionists, talking about how proud we were to be British. It was more that becoming independent felt like cutting our nation off from the rest of the world.
But then, only two years later, that is exactly what happened. Despite Scotland voting overwhelmingly Remain, we were being dragged out of the EU against our will. I had changed to Yes before Brexit, mainly due to the exposure to new ideas that accompanies moving to a new city and meeting new people. But I believe the argument for independence has only grown stronger since my 2015 switch.
Since then, I have voted in three elections and one referendum. In all the four, the outcome has not been reflective of what Scotland voted for. It is intrinsic to the nature of elections that not every voice will be heard in the final result. But when a majority is silenced, that is when you know the system is truly broken.
Evie Donaldson, 23, student in Glasgow
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