On this, the most exciting day of my life, here is a video by Laura Wadha. She kindly said she was inspired to make it by hearing me speak in Cupar. I am so proud to have been part of this people based movement.
I am watching now as voters walk down to the polling station. Whatever the result (and I believe we will win) the resilience of so many Scottish people in the face of the most concerted and unanimous media, corporate business and professional politician propaganda blitz in western democratic history has been quite extraordinary. Local, people-based, paying no attention to “leaders” and utilising the oldest forms of human communication combined with the most modern of social media, the people’s campaign for independence has been astonishing. Now we can grasp the chance to create a new kind of modern society.
The most important day of my life.
Most important day of mine too! I’ve followed your blog closely during the campaign, sharing the articles to social media. I enjoyed your talk at the Dundee Yes evening a few weeks ago, and have enjoyed your books. Just wanted to say thanks.
My political stance has always followed an anarchist persuasion. However, for something as important as the opportunity to change the status quo, not only for Scotland, but the rUK and indeed the world. I have set my ideals aside and voted for the first time in 33 years. My wife has done the same. I’m confident many more are in the same position, and thus confident in a positive outcome!
Go Scotland!
I don’t think you could have done much more Craig. Well done.
Whatever the result, best wishes for Scotland. Having said that, I think things are irrevocably changing!
Have voted in every election since 1968 and never felt as I did this morning when I marked my cross.
If yes, then Friday morning I’ll wander off into Edinburgh and celebrate.
If No, then I’ll stay at home, mourn, tidy and clean the house ….. and my house is a tip. Probably won’t be seen for a couple of weeks.
Let it be Yes!
Very good video. Made an old lizard choke up a bit, that.
Laura Wadha for MInister for Media, I think
https://twitter.com/Laura_Wadha
It’s a lovely video by some very positive young people, but it worries me that while touching upon stuff like not wanting to be ruled by Westminster or associated withTrident, what it doesn’t mention is the possible harsh economic reality that independence could bring once the euphoria has died down and people realise “sh*t, we’ve a country to run here”. I’m no economist, but I’d have thought a country with a population of c. 5.3m, of which 6.9% are unemployed, would struggle to be self-serving indefinitely, particularly if, as predicted by some, the oil reserves run dry.
By the way, I say all of this from a totally independent point of view as, while my father was Scottish and two of my sistrs and my brother were born in Scotland I was born down south, so I have no vote, but I care about the country’s future as I love the place. Indeed I have always considered myself more Scottish than English. I spent many summers there as a boy and I even rejected sunnier climes to spend my honeymoon in the Highlands!
My main fear is that a lot of people’s motivations to say ‘yes’ is purely based on the chance to get one across on ‘the auld enemy’ i.e. a nationalist stance rather than a common sense approach taking into account all the possible factors. Yes, getting rid of Westminster’s influence would be great, but, come independence, can Scotland afford to pay its own way far into the future? I’d welcome any comments that would put my mind at ease on that aspect.
Fingers and other bits crossed. Hoping for a positive result !
I’m hoping for a Yes result and the chance to get rid of nearly 50 Labour MPs, though no doubt they will be able to inflict damage for a further two years. A No vote would be a disaster now that idiot Cameron has offered the Scots even more money than they currently get. He should have offered the status quo or independence, take it or leave it. The injustices of Labour governments being propped up by the massive public sector vote in Scotland and Scots MPs being able to vote on English matters must end. Hopefully there will be a sharp reduction in the grossly disproportionate numbers of Scots in all aspects of politics and media.
All that said I’m afraid it’s going to be a No. The Scots simply don’t have it in them to reject the English teet and go it alone. They’ll go for devomax and more free money. It’ll be an embarrassment with the world’s media watching and the rest of the UK will have to work out how to repair the damage caused by the SNP wreckers. Salmond wins either way, of course, but I reckon he’s secretly hoping for a No so he can continue to snipe from the sidelines without the burden of holding any responsibility.
Giving the vote to 16-year-olds was a disgrace, not giving the vote to Scots in England was a disgrace, but if it helps the Yes campaign then so be it. The last thing we want is another 300 years of interminable whinging with cap in hand whilst blaming the English for everything.
Please Scotland, free England. Vote Yes.
(And if you can’t do it, give us the vote and we’ll do it for you.)
the possible harsh economic reality that independence could bring…
Wasn’t that possibility rather thoroughly covered by the No campaign? So voters are probably aware of it. If there’s a Yes vote, I’m thinking that it will be accepted that what comes next is very hard work, to reverse the austerity measures UKplc is already enduring, and put Scotland on a sound economic footing. I doubt that anyone thinks it will be easy.
Alasdair Murray
Small countries can do well if they aspire to be like, say, New Zealand or Singapore.
But the SNP role-model is Venezuala, without the oil. The economy will start to seriously tank once the socialists implement policies like taxing the rich out of existence. Then they’ll come begging again, hopefully to the EU this time, and blame it all on the English, of course.
@Anon1
🙂
Craig – fingers crossed for your dream to come true.
Personally I’m hoping for a yes, but largely not for the reasons given by the young idealists featured in Laura Wadha’s excellent video. The ‘Vow’ cobbled together by the three stooges earlier this week, including the promise to continue the Barnett formula, seemingly forever, did it for me. Of course by any rational yardstick the formula has passed its sell-by date-even the begetter of the formula has disowned it-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11100400/My-funding-formula-for-Scotland-is-a-terrible-mistake-Lord-Barnett-admits.html
The rationale behind these last minute acts of desperation, as far as Cameron and Clegg are concerned,is clearly the promise of the Yes campaign to close Faslane by 2020. Neither of them fancies-
1. telling the people of Cornwall that these WMDs will have to be parked in Falmouth after 2020, or
2. telling the septics that our ‘independent nuclear deterrent’ has been rendered unviable by the loss of its present base.
As for Labour, the possible loss of their rotten boroughs north of the border is reason enough for such desperate measures.
Careful what you wish for, Anon.
You’ll lose maybe 45 Labour MP’s (they’ll parachute some into safe English seats*)and you’ll get UKIP instead. You’ll either be the least popular member of the EU by a longer way than at present, or out. You’ll not only be the USA’s branch office, but its forward European strategic base, with ground zero in England. Your economy will still be fucked, and you will continue to prioritise subsidies to PFI projects and failed franchises over providing essential services at an economic cost. Oh, and you’ll have collected RBS and Clydesdale to bail out the next time your criminal charade of a market economy goes pfft.
Well done you. I say ‘you’. I hope not to be here.
*God willing, they’ll parachute Gordon in. He’s just begun to show signs of realising how NuLabour stitched him up, and his Presbyterian morals may kick (a) in and (b) your sorry asses.
Craig,
How do you fancy being the Scottish ambassador to the Court of St James’s ?
You know better than anyone how the UK establishment operates.
Of course,we will need to have a vote on it,but should be a shoe in.
All the best whatever.
I’ve not been so interested in an election since Harold Wilson won in 1964. I remember seeing him on a fruit box in Oldham Market. All my family voted Tory. I was too young to vote…but I stayed up all night watching it on the Telly.
I will do the same tonight.
Got a bottle of Famous Grouse ready….and told my wife..if the Result is Yes..she will have to walk to Yoga tomorrow morning..cos I will be in no fit state to drive.
Tony
“You’ll either be the least popular member of the EU by a longer way than at present, or out. ”
Excellent news. Let’s hope it’s out – that’s £55 million a day saved straight away. Then we can dump HS2 (£80 billion saved). Lots more savings to be made without the dead weight of Scotchland.
Vote Yes 😀
No sleep tonight. It’ll be YES.
But the SNP role-model is Venezuala (sic)
Do feel free to substantiate that assertion in some way.
On possible models:
Today’s Grauniad has a long article on José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica Cordano.
Who he? The president of Uruguay (independent from Brazil in 1828, population 3 million, close ties with Argentina), he lives austerely and promotes “a return to simplicity, with lives founded on human relationships, love, friendship, adventure, solidarity and family, instead of lives shackled to the economy” (Wiki) as well as making the very logical point that:
““Businesses just want to increase their profits; it’s up to the government to make sure they distribute enough of those profits so workers have the money to buy the goods they produce…It’s no mystery–the less poverty, the more commerce. The most important investment we can make is in human resources.” (Address to US Chamber of Commerce)
Uruguay seems to be doing ok.
Ladbrokes is offering a staggering £55* return for a tenner on Yes winning with 50-55% of the vote.
Also of interest may be the 500/1 they are offering on Kim Jong-un appearing in Scotland before the result is announced.
*in new Scottish currency terms = one case of Buckfast.
In a GE I had thought there were no polls on the final day, maybe I’m wrong there. But we have one today. Guardian has the final IPSOS Mori poll. Looks like it’s a No.
I distrust all polls without exception. It’s fairly obvious they are used to manipulate public perception and opinion. So this one may well be wrong. We will see. Either way, it’s been interesting. Scotland will be independent soon enough, I’m sure, though maybe not this time.
Couldn’t agree more about HS2, btw. How about the other vanity projects?
It’s done! But not quite in the way I anticipated. I went to the polling station with card in hand, and the guys checked the list – I could tell right away there was a problem. “Did you apply for a postal vote sir?”. Yes, I replied, but I didn’t use it as I’m off work today. My heart was racing, but in order to avoid unnecessary tension and worry, let me tell you that I kept the postal ballot just in case (Ahm no daft), and my Yes vote is securely in the bag! But as I was reversing out of the car park, a woman knocked on my window, clearly upset, near to tears.
“You’ve got to help me, please, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do.”
“Of course, what’s wrong”. She told me she ran her own child care services business, she was worried about her employees, if she couldn’t pay their wages, if costs went up. It was tearing her apart. Her heart said Yes, but she was scared of what the future might bring. I asked her name (my mind was racing), “Rachel”, I said, taking her hand, “Don’t be scared, we will face challenges and uncertainty whatever happens, don’t be scared. I am voting with my heart, for my family and friends, for their future. Your heart is telling you what’s right. How can your heart be wrong?”.
Still holding my hand she said, “Thank you, thank you, I know what to do now. Why are we both crying? “
Great to hear polling station reports. More please!
They KNOW what’s coming. And well deserved, it is. YES!
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/09/17/recrimination-in-westminster-as-yes-sees-victory-in-its-gras
so my darling and I
make love in the sand
to salute the last moment
ever on dry land
our machine has done its work
played its part well
without a scratch on our bodies
and we bid it farewell
Jimi Hendrix
Alasdair Murray, 11:32 am
As oil becomes more scarce globally its price rises – just look at the graphs! Oil doesn’t just suddenly run dry; look up the work of a petroleum geologist called Hubbert.
The UK economy should not be regarded as sound backing for Scotland because it really isn’t as prosperous as is made out; the UK’s good credit rating is largely based upon over-inflated property prices which effectively serve as a ‘stealth tax’ by those rich enough to afford property to rent out upon those who can,t afford to buy.
With its excellent energy resources (renewable and fossil), no nukes to fund, and no need to follow the US into highly expensive wars, Scotland will have several major economic advantages over the (dis)United Kingdom.
@Craig “The most important day of my life.”
A wise attitude, for who knows what tomorrow may bring, when the results are known. 🙂
Clark
I must say I’m disappointed. Around half the British Isles are going to be underwater by 2100 thanks to man-made climate change. Just ask Komodo.
And yet for all your enviro-credentials here you are looking forward to exploiting Scottish oil that will drown us all and the polar bears.
Are you putting your dislike of the UK above the future of mankind?
Brendan
“Guardian has the final IPSOS Mori poll. Looks like it’s a No.”
53%. With the undecided swing and factoring in all those who have told their friends and family they intend to vote Yes, but vote No once they are in the secret ballot box, you’re looking at a sizeable No victory, perhaps even as high as 57%.
I hope this info is helping because you should always come down in stages after a massive high rather than allowing it to hit you all in one go. I’m performing a valuable public service here in making the inevitable disappointment a little easier to cope with.
Anon1
🙂