Yes and no campaign leaders out in force across Scotland, as
Alistair Darling admits vote will go 'right down to the wire'
By Rowena Mason
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Two women take a photograph of themselves on the border. The three latest polls
suggest the no campaign has a slight lead of 52% to 48% for.
Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
|
The leaders of
the yes and no campaigns are making their final pitches in the Scottish
referendum campaign ahead of Thursday's historic vote, with the first
minister Alex
Salmond saying Scotland would
be the "envy of the world" if it votes to leave the UK.
The three
latest pollsfrom ICM, Opinium and Survation suggest the no campaign has a slight
lead, showing support for independence at about 48% and those backing the union
at about 52%. Alistair
Darling, the leader of the Better Together campaign, said the vote
would go "right down to the wire".
With
just under 24 hours to go before polls open, campaigners will be out in force
across Scotland making their final pleas and delivering millions of leaflets in
an attempt to swing undecided voters.
Ed
Miliband is due to make a series of campaigning visits over the
next two days and Gordon Brown is leading a rally in Glasgow on Wednesday
morning, as Labour battles
to save the 307-year-old union in a part of the country that it considers part
of its core constituency.
The Westminster
party leaders have unveiled a package of devolutionmeasures
and made a promise to keep the Barnett formula, which ensures 19% more spending
per head for Scots than the English, in a last-minute attempt to save the
union.
The yes
campaign is targeting older voters who are more likely to say no to
independence and holding a rally of celebrity supporters in Glasgow. Salmond is
giving a final speech in Perth on Wednesday night, after writing an
impassioned open letter to Scotland urging people to
vote so that they wake up on Friday in a better country.
Speaking
on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday morning, he dismissed the offer
of the Better Together campaign.
"These
are the same package that was announced last spring, reannounced a week ago and
repackaged in desperation yesterday by the three Westminster leaders. They've
been heavily discounted by the Scottish people. And as for the currency we'll
use? We'll use the pound."
On
the same programme, Darling gave a final warning to the Scots that there would
be no going back if independence did not work out.
"It's
not like a general election where if it doesn't work out, or you don't like the
government of the day, you can kick them out," he said.
"This
time the vote we cast tomorrow is final. If we decide to go, there is no going back.
I believe that voting no gets you a stronger Scotland, with a stronger Scottish
parliament. Voting yes brings all sorts of risks, on currency, on jobs, and I
think the majority of people in Scotland just don't want that. There are so
many unanswered questions, so much uncertainty as to how it would affect
families, with price rises and so on. Which is why I think, by the end of
tomorrow, we'll win."
Better
Together is facing a nervous wait, after losing its clear lead in the polls
over the past few months. Recriminations have already started to fly within the
no camp, and some Westminster MPs are angry that David Cameron and Ed Miliband
have promised so much Scottish devolution without considering the needs of
England or consulting parliament.
The
prime minister is seen has having taken a gamble by offering the referendum
with a misplaced degree of certainty that he would win.
Cameron
defended his decision in the Times, saying: "I think that actuallyScottish independence would be closer today if I had
taken that approach than it is by having a proper, legal, fair and decisive
referendum."
Both
sides have been putting pressure on celebrities, business leaders and other
opinion leaders to speak out in their favour with endorsements over the past
few weeks.
A major coup
for the no campaign was the support of Bill Clinton, the former US
president, on the grounds that the new powers due to be devolved to
the Scottish parliament would guarantee "maximum self-determination".
He said: "I understand and sympathise with those who want independence …
however, I hope the Scots people will vote to remain in the UK."
Fourteen
former British military chiefs also issued an urgent warning to voters in
Scotland, saying Thursday's referendum could prove "critical to our
security".
Rupert
Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp, who appeared to be flirting with
the yes camp during a brief trip to Scotland over the weekend, has hedged his
bets after the Scottish Sun declined to endorse either side. In an editorial on
Wednesday the paper said the decision was so momentous people had to make up
their own mind.
The final days
of campaigning have been dominated by the battleground issues of the NHS and
the UK constitution. Demonstrations have taken an abusive and chaotic turn in
some areas, with Miliband forced to abandon a walkabout because he was being
shouted at and insulted by yes supporters.
The
Labour leader was caught in a crush with TV crews and journalists at the St
James shopping centre in central Edinburgh. Yes campaigners hurled abuse at
him, calling him a liar and a serial murderer, prompting him to say: "I
think we've seen in parts of this campaign an ugly side to it from the yes
campaign."
It
was the latest in a series of incidents in which senior Scottish Labour figures
campaigning for a no vote, including Jim Murphy and Gordon Brown, have been
targeted by pro-independence protesters.
In
one snatched interview during the melee, Miliband said he was in Edinburgh to
argue for "more powers for a stronger Scotland as well as NHS funding
guaranteed, and that's got to be weighed up against the big risks of voting
yes. And that's the choice people are facing in the last couple of days of this
campaign."
There were also
claims that Alex Salmond had tried to put pressure on
Prof Louise Richardson, the principal of St Andrews University to
criticise the Westminster government's higher education policy. The Telegraph
reported that the First Minister phoned Richardson after she refused to put out
a statement penned for her by one of Salmond's aides.
In
the referendum campaign's final surge, rival campaigns have sent out more than
4m leaflets. Yes Scotland targeted pensioners with 1.2 million personally
addressed appeals.
Salmond
suffered a blow when a leaked document raised significant questions about the
Scottish government's funding of the NHS.
The
paper for senior NHS managers revealed they were planning to have to deal with
a £450m shortfall over the next two years. Sweeping cuts would be needed to
fund the shortfall, the document said.
The
leak sabotaged Salmond's efforts to put the future of Scotland's health
services at the centre of the yes campaign, by alleging that NHS privatisation
policy in England could force Scotland to cut health spending.
@ The Guardian
@ The Guardian
