September 17, 2014

SCOTTISH REFERENDUM CAMPAIGNS MAKE FINAL PITCHES IN LAST 24 HOURS BEFORE VOTE

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
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