Them's the demographics

So, the Scots have voted "No".  Clearly, it was the crazy and idealistic youth who wanted the "Yes" side to win.  Cooler heads, however, prevailed.  A look at the demographics tells the tale.  Ages 15 to 24 comprise only 13 percent of the population -- most probably fanatics.  Cooler heads, ages 40 to 54, comprise 23 percent and they relied upon their wisdom to defeat the motion.   

The numbers were against the "No".  Plain and simple.  Heard lots of middle-aged citizens interviewed who said they would have voted "yes" ten years earlier, but realized now that would have been folly.

I am trying to understand what the issue was.  I guess it was money, as usual.  Questioning B, a constitutional expert who worked with British lawyers in the forefront of patriating our own constitution in 1982 under 'Trudeau the Elder', I still couldn't really find an equivalent to explain Scotland's problem.  Here, the provinces have taxing powers, as do the municipalities (creatures of the provinces, by the way), so they don't have a beef.  Scotland, although it has a Parliament, has no taxing powers and all fiscal allocations are decided in Westminster.  What they were after was fiscal autonomy.  And that's as close as I can come to understanding what their problem was. 

With wisdom and a bit of hysteria, Salmond has resigned.  But his speech still sounded like a victory lap.  No buddy, you lost.  And with much more of a margin than we suffered through when Quebec held its last referendum.  Man, that was a squeaker!

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Today is Leonard Cohen's 80th birthday.  Wow!  How did that happen!?  Listening to an interview on CBC, he talked about the origins of his wonderful song, 'Suzanne'.  Apparently, it was written about a beautiful young Montreal woman he knew named "Suzanne Viallancourt".  I started when he said that because my Montreal grandmother's maiden name was "Vaillancourt" and guess what my own daughter's name is?  Yep, "Susanne".  I betcha they're related.  Very cool. 

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Always researching for my blog, I found material while sitting in a restaurant, waiting for B to be released from hospital a few days ago.  Beside me was a table of six, but only one guy was doing all the talking.  Why is that?  No one challenged him, no one argued, no one else spoke?  He must be the guy with the money.  Always is. 

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Popped into my dermatologist's the other day for a check on a pesky blemish on my left ear (all clear, by the way) and there they were:  forty people on their cell phones, in spite of a huge sign and idogram that clearly yelled "NO CELL PHONES".  Mentioning it to the doctor, I laughed when he said, "They're even on them when I come into the examining room.  If they are, I just turn around and walk out and they have to wait another six months to see me."  Good for him.