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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with the Scottish Cabinet. Image: Scottish Government

Across the UK 52% of voters chose to leave the EU in yesterday’s poll.  But the result is triggering an unprecendented constitutional chain reaction, as England and Wales voted to leave and Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.

The First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has said a second referendum on independence is “highly likely”.

Quoted by the BBC she said it would be “democratically unacceptable” for England and Wales to drag Scotland out of the EU.  62% of people in Scotland backed “remain”.

A Scottish Green Party petition to keep Scotland in the European Union has been shared by 3,000 people on Facebook. Adam Ramsay of Open Democracy UK has outlined how Scotland could make this happen.

In Northern Ireland Sinn Féin have said there is a “democratic imperative” for a referendum on unification with the Republic after 56% of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.

Declan Kearney MLA, Sinn Féin national party chairperson, said: “English votes have overturned the democratic will of Northern Ireland.”

In Gibraltar, where 96% of voters backed EU membership, Spain has made a renewed call for joint sovereignty. Foreign Minister Garcia-Margallo said: “It’s a complete change of outlook that opens up new possibilities on Gibraltar not seen for a very long time.”

At 8am this morning David Cameron said he will step down “by October” as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, signalling a leadership poll in the Conservative Party and raising the possibility of a UK General Election.

However the leadership of the UK Government seems almost trivial in light of the various ways in which the British nation state appears to be falling apart at seems.