Last updated: September 18, 2014 2:17 pm
Scots vote to decide future of their union with UK
Scots are voting to decide whether their country should remain part of the UK or end the 307-year-old union and begin life as an independent nation.
A total of 4.29m, or 97 per cent of the electorate, have registered to vote, the largest electorate Scotland has ever seen. The result of Thursday’s historic referendum is expected early on Friday, with the opinion polls in the past two days suggesting it is going to be extremely close.
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On markets, sterling is up 85 pips to $1.6359, having fallen last week fell to a nine-month low of $1.6050 after polls showed a small Yes majority. It has halved its September losses as investors increasingly bet the No camp will win.
Campaigners in the leafy west end of Glasgow reported that queues formed outside polling stations before they opened at 7am. Greeting voters outside Hyndland Secondary School, Peter Taylor, a 64-year-old Glasgow Labour party member, said: “I’ve stood outside this school several times for elections before. I would say this is getting on for 50 per cent greater [number of people].”
Several voters were still undecided when they showed up to the polling station and asked campaigners to persuade them either way.
Independence activist Johnny Hunter, a retired environmental health officer, said: “I’m the last face people see of the Yes campaign – I need to make sure it’s a happy face to match the positive message of the campaign.”
Hilda Marshall, a retired pro-independence voter, said: “I felt as though the Hallelujah chorus should have erupted when I put the cross down.”
Scotland’s referendum count: When to expect what
An approximate timetable of what to expect during the night of the count – when the results will come in from the 32 council areas
Speaking on his way to vote “No” in Ruchill, north Glasgow, Kenneth Gould, 63, said: “I’m going to march right in there and will tick the box with confidence, without hesitation.” He joked he would wave his ballot in the air and cry “look how I’m voting folks”.
But he added of the possible result: “I’m nervous. Once you make that decision, that’s it.”
Ipsos MORI’s final poll of the campaign, published on Thursday, shows the No campaign with a very narrow lead, in line with other polls in recent days.
Based on responses from 991 people questioned on Tuesday and Wednesday, 50 per cent of those certain to vote said they would vote No, with 45 per cent saying they would vote Yes and 4 per cent still undecided. Excluding those undecided, 53 per cent said they planned to vote No, with 47 per cent to vote Yes. The day is forecast to remain dry across most of Scotland, although light drizzle was expected in some areas
In his final speech on Wednesday night, Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister urged the public to defy the might of the “London establishment” and vote to leave the UK.
“This is our opportunity of a lifetime and we must seize it with both hands,” he said.
His speech followed an impassioned plea by Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, earlier on Wednesday to reject independence.
In an apparent boost to the Yes campaign, Andy Murray, the Scottish-born tennis player, seemed to endorse the independence campaign when he took to Twitter in the early hours of Thursday morning.
“Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!”, he wrote. Murray is not resident in Scotland so does not have a vote.
Some voters were underwhelmed by the atmosphere at the polling stations. First-time voter Jonathan Gibson, who is about to head to Oxford university to read history, said after voting in Jordanhill that the experience had been “a bit of an anticlimax”.
The student, who is also celebrating his 18th birthday today, said: “I expected more people outside. It should have felt like a bigger thing.”
His friend Adam Macnaughton, preparing to study natural sciences at Cambridge, said a lot of his Yes-voting peer group had failed to take the vote seriously. “Some people are thinking ‘screw it, it’s a bit of a laugh’.”
He was planning to vote No in Bearsden later in the afternoon. He was looking forward to no longer being inundated with referendum messages on social media. “It can get quite confrontational,” he said.
In anticipation of a close result, the head of the Church of Scotland called on both sides to join forces and restore harmony, amid fears the country will be left a divided nation.
“Get ready to accept the will of the Scottish people and that will be best done by setting passions aside,” said the Rt Rev John Chalmers. “If we do that we’ll be ready for the next step in the process, which will be to harness the energy of both sides. Whatever the outcome we will need to be ready to work together.”
Scotland has set up 5,579 polling stations, which means typically there should be no more than 800 voters allocated to each, in an effort to avoid large queues. The polls opened at 7am and will close at 10pm, with anybody queueing at that time still eligible to cast their vote.
Meanwhile, a group of economists from across Britain’s universities has written to the Financial Times warning Scotland that independence would be a “gamble with very poor odds”.
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