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Up to 14% undecided as Scotland goes to the polls on independence
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ON the eve of Scotland’s historic referendum, polls showed support for staying in the United Kingdom just ahead of backing for independence although tens of thousands of citizens are still agonizing over which way to vote today.
Leaders and supporters of both sides took to the streets yesterday for a final day of campaigning in a country gripped by excitement and hope balanced by a strong measure of dread and concern.
Voters will be asked to answer “Yes” or “No” to the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
A “Yes” vote would spell the end of the 307-year-old union with England and the break-up of the United Kingdom — as well as some economic uncertainty.
Three surveys — from pollsters ICM, Opinium and Survation — showed support for independence at 48 percent compared with 52 percent backing the union. But they found 8 to 14 percent of Scotland’s 4.3 million voters still undecided.
British political leaders have promised greater autonomy for Scotland if people decide to stay in the union. But independence supporters say it is time for Scotland to choose its own leaders and make its own decisions free of rule from London.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who has led the independence campaign, urged voters: “Wake up on Friday morning to the first day of a better country.”
In an open letter to Scotland’s residents, Salmond said the nation’s future was in their hands. Invoking 18th century economist Adam Smith and Scotland’s greatest poet Robert Burns, he said: “Don’t let this opportunity slip through our fingers. Don’t let them tell us we can’t. Let’s do this.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron told The Times newspaper he always thought the contest would be tightly fought.
“Whatever the result, we are a democracy. You have to respect the expression of people through the ballot box,” he said.
Cameron has visited Scotland twice in the past week to appeal for it to stay in the UK’s “family of nations.” But he is unpopular north of the border, often dismissed as the epitome of a disdainful upper-class Englishman.
Asked if he woke up in the night sweating over the possibility of defeat, he replied: “Of course.”
All three polls showed nationalists had gained ground but the fact that supporters of the union were ahead prompted investors to buy the pound, extending sterling’s gain against the dollar.
“It is very tight,” John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, told the Scotsman newspaper. “At the moment it looks as if the ‘Yes’ campaign is going to fall agonisingly short from their perspective.”
Hundreds of independence supporters rallied in Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, yesterday, chanting: “Yes we can and we will” and listening to speeches by activists on the steps in front of the Royal Concert Hall.
“We’re on the verge of victory because we’ve reconnected so many people with the political process,” Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Green party leader, told the crowd. “Nothing’s going to be the same again, whichever way it goes.”
One sign read: “Vote as if you live in the early days of a better world.”
With more than 486,000 voters, Glasgow is a crucial battleground and the way its traditional Labour supporters go will be decisive.
Also in Glasgow, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a rally of union supporters that the independence advocates “are leading us into a trap.” “Have confidence, stand up and be counted tomorrow,” Brown said. “Say to your friends, for reasons of solidarity, sharing, pride in Scotland, the only answer is vote ‘No’.”
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