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Scottish independence: What you shouldn't tweet about if you want to avoid jail today

Rules set out in the Scottish Referendum Act make clear that all media organisations cannot publish any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted

Thursday 18 September 2014 14:39 BST

Voters wait for the polling station to open to cast their vote in Portobello near Edinburgh, Scotland September 18, 2014 (Reuters )

The media has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for the way it has reported the lead-in to today’s historic vote. It is an oddity of the system of media regulation in the UK that different rules apply to broadcasters and to ‘the press’ in the arena of election coverage, even though a division of those camps is increasingly anachronistic.

Now that the polls have opened, broadcasters are prohibited from discussing and analysing referendum issues and cannot do so again until voting is concluded. You will hear plenty of news about the weather but you won’t find the Beeb discussing Andy Murray’s views on the future of the Union.

The print media, by contrast, operates under fewer constraints and there is plenty of debate in this morning’s papers about the key issues.

Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

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1/7Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The 2015 General Election

If it votes for independence, Scotland won’t leave the union until 2016 meaning, under current arrangements, that if Scots decide to go it alone they will still vote in the 2015 general election. The possibility of Scotland swinging the vote in favour of the government with which it will negotiate their independence has led some to call for the elections to be delayed. Downing Street has said, however, that it has no plans to postpone the election despite claims a yes vote could lead to a constitutional crisis.

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Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The NHS

Alex Salmond has said a Yes vote in the referendum is the only way to save Scotland’s National Health Service. This claim was undermined, however, yesterday when research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies determined that Scotland’s devolved government spent less in real terms on its health service than England. Despite this, the splitting up of the NHS would be more straightforward than other institutions, as it is already managed from Holyrood.

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Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The BBC

The Licence fee in Scotland currently raises around £230m which the Yes campaign says it would use, along with the assets of BBC Scotland, to create a Scottish Broadcasting Service or SBS. It says the SBS would continue to provide original content to the BBC and Scotland would receive access to all current programming, including BBC1, BBC2 and national radio stations. The government has said since February that an independent Scotland would lose any automatic rights to BBC programming.

Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The Pound

The No Campaign is hoping that doubts over whether or not Scotland will be able to keep the pound will sway the referendum in its favour. George Osborne has said that the UK will not let Scotland keep the pound if it votes to leave the union and the leader of the Better Together coalition, former Chancellor Alistair Darling, has called the Yes campaign’s suggestion that it keep the currency “mad”. Alex Salmond has claimed repeatedly that Scotland will be able to retain the pound and has said speculation to the contrary is little more than fear mongering.

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Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The Army

Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war and the stationing of the Trident Nuclear fleet north of the border are unpopular in Scotland. The Scottish Nationalists have railed against the war saying they would scrap Trident and create a new Scottish defence force based on existing Scottish regiments.

Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The Royal Family

Scotland would keep the Queen as a head of state under current plans proposed by the Yes campaign, as Elizabeth Queen of Scots. It would also remain part of the Commonwealth. However a second referendum could be held to determine what form a new Scottish state would take.

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Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

Sport

Scotland’s Rugby and Football teams would remain as they are if Scotland voted to leave the UK but the British and Irish Lions could be forced into a name change. What would happen to the British Olympic Association also remains up for debate. Scotland’s most successful Olympian Sir Chris Hoy has said he is wary of independence because of the number of Scottish athletes living and training in England and what their status would be.

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However, some rules – as set out in the Scottish Referendum Act – are common to all media and, indeed, extend beyond its boundaries. If you’re tweeting today, you might want to bear the following in mind, on pain of a possible prison sentence. “No person”, says the Act in its section on Exit Polls, “may publish before the close of the poll…any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted…where that statement is (or might reasonably be taken to be) based on information given by voters after they have voted”. The publication of any forecast based on such information is also prohibited.

And if you are in any doubt about what “publish” means in this context, the Act helpfully makes clear that it is “to make available to the public at large (or any section of the public) in whatever form and by whatever means”. In short, that includes social media. One word in this part of the Act which might have the potential to confuse is the reference to “voters” in the plural. Telling the world about how you yourself have voted might be acceptable; but to find out and then publish how everyone on your street has done is not. Large-scale retweeting of news from others who have voted may be risky.

Quite how rigorously the Act will be interpreted and enforced remains of course to be seen. But jail is almost certainly no more pleasant in an independent Scotland than a United Kingdom.