As if a United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union itself wasn't bad enough, the actual results of the referendum will put a real strain on the "U" in the UK. Results suggest that 52% of the United Kingdom have voted to leave, although that number may yet change as more districts send in their final figures, with 48% choosing to remain.
That division is even neater than it sounds: London, Scotland and Northern Ireland very clearly voted to Remain. The rest of the UK voted to Leave. The Guardian's results map tells the story.
Although there are scattered districts that have also voted to Remain, there seem to be no "Leave"-voting districts in London, Scotland or Northern Ireland. This makes it clear that there is a deep cultural and economic divide in the country, one that is only going to get worse after this referendum forces all of the UK to detach from the European Union.
This has turned focus back on the question of how United the UK actually is.
The Scottish independence referendum only took place two years, with the "No" side (choosing to remain in the UK), winning by 55%. The stark divide in results means there is enough of a platform for Scottish politicians to once again call for independence. Scotland's first minister has already piped up.
The key bit there: "The people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union." The suggestions are that the Scottish Nationalist Party, which was at the forefront of the independence campaign, will wait for a few months allowing the UK economy to tank to truly capitalise on the impulse to go independent. But the clear lines from Friday's results might even convince the SNP to move faster on demanding a second independence referendum.
And this feeling will not be limited to Scotland. Northern Ireland also clearly voted to remain in the EU, and politicians there will also take advantage of the results. Sinn Féin, the party most closely associated with the Irish separatist movement, has already said that it will seek a referendum on reunification of Ireland and a return to the EU.
There is one more section of the country that has overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU: London. Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, London doesn't have a neat separatist party to fall back on that will now seek to divide the United Kingdom. And of course, the idea of a UK without London is farcical.
Yet the distinct difference between how London and the countryside voted speaks to the huge divide at the heart of the UK. Just because London doesn't have a separatist movement doesn't mean one cannot start now:
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