Scottish Independence

Scottish Independence

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BAK

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first-minister-Alex-Salmo-011.jpg

The first minister, Alex Salmond, meets Scots and other European citizens in Parliament Square, outside St Giles, Edinburgh. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod
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Britain's three main party leaders will cast aside partisan Westminster politics on Wednesday, abandoning the routine of the weekly battle of prime minister's questions, to travel to Scotland in a desperate joint bid to stop a haemorrhage of votes towards Scottish independence.

Travelling separately and speaking to different audiences, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg will fan out across Scotland on Wednesday to make an impassioned collective appeal to Scots to vote to stay inside the what they will say be a changedUnited Kingdom.

"There is a lot that divides us – but there's one thing on which we agree passionately: the United Kingdom is better together," the leaders said in a joint statement on Tuesday. "That's why all of us are agreed the right place for us to be tomorrow is in Scotland, not at prime minister's questions in Westminster.

"We want to be listening and talking to voters about the huge choice they face. Our message to the Scottish people will be simple: 'We want you to stay.'"

Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, described the trio's decision to travel north as "the biggest blunder of the campaign" and claimed the Westminster establishment was "in a total and utter panic" as its campaign disintegrated.

The unprecedented cooperation across the Westminster divide exposes the naked fear in London that Scottish voters are not heeding the jitters in the financial markets or dark warnings about the irreversible risks to the Scottish economy entailed in a vote for yes next week.

The three leaders arrive a day after Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, warned that a currency union was "incompatible with sovereignty", rejecting Salmond's claim that Scotland could share the pound and become an independent nation.

The governor set out three elements necessary for a successful currency union: free movement of capital, banking union, and joint fiscal arrangements over tax and spending.

The currency debate is being watched closely by financial markets, along with the approach that would be taken by the banking industry in the event of a yes vote.

Analysts at Credit Suisse said Scotland would fall into a deep recession in the event of a yes vote. "We think deposit flight is both highly likely and highly problematic," they said, pointing out that Scotland's bank assets were 12 times GDP.

The Queen also stepped into the debate, with Buckingham Palace releasing a statement saying the outcome of the independence referendum is "a matter for the people of Scotland".

Currently in Balmoral, where she will stay until after the vote on 18 September, her intervention came after Salmond suggested she would be "proud to be Queen of Scots" and the Sunday Times said she had a "great deal of concern" about a yes vote.

Cameron had not been expected to travel to Scotland until the final week of the campaign, but the prime minister agreed to tear up this timetable after a meeting with Ed Miliband on Monday afternoon at which the two men discussed a second opinion poll from TNS that had the yes vote surging to 38% and in effect tied with the no camp on 39% once undecided voters are excluded.

Cameron ordered the saltire to fly over Downing Street until the referendum is concluded, as Miliband urged towns and cities across the UK to fly the flag in support of the union.

Miliband's team rejected the prospect of the three party leaders appearing together on a joint platform, fearing the Labour leader would be tainted if he appeared alongside Cameron, and might come across as part of a bullying Westminster elite entering Scotland to demand surrender terms.

"We agreed to march separately but to strike together," said a Labour source.

Salmond was scathing about the politicians' arrival in Scotland, pointing to opinion polls giving all three leaders a substantial negative rating – adding up to minus 150 points in the latest YouGov poll.

That made them the most distrusted Westminster politicians ever, Salmond said. He added: "The message of this extraordinary, last-minute reaction is that the Westminster elite are in a state of absolute panic as the ground in Scotland shifts under their feet." He even offered to pay for their travel costs.

In what appears to be a deliberate attempt to offer rolling news networks a stream of pro-UK events, Cameron is due to appear in the Edinburgh area in the morning, followed by an event featuring Clegg in the Scottish Borders, while Miliband is due in the Glasgow area later.

In his speech in Glasgow, Miliband will deliver the strong message of change that the former prime minister Gordon Brown is now sending to Labour supporters in an attempt to reassure them the choice next week is no longer between an unsatisfactory status quo or separation.

Reminding voters that they would be casting their vote in indelible ink, Cameron writes in the Daily Mail that he "agrees wholeheartedly" with Brown's timetable for further devolution.

He says: "This is the sort of clarityyou need as you make this decision, especially when you're not just making this decision for yourself, but for your children, your grandchildren, and their children too.

"With this timetable, we are giving people that clarity, showing that by voting no, Scotland gets the best of both worlds: power over the policies that matter, and the stability of the United Kingdom; the freedom to chart its own destiny, and the support of three other nations; the reputation in the world as a successful nation, and the clout of a world-renowned union".

He adds: "While a yes vote may be a lucky dip, a no vote is a guaranteed win for anyone who wants a stronger, more autonomous Scotland."

Miliband will say on Wednesday: "A vote for no is not a vote for no change, it is a vote for change, a vote for change in terms of more devolution of power, and a vote for change in the way our economy and our country works, because we've heard the call for change from the voters of Scotland."

Some Labour sources acknowledged that alongside an emotional appeal for the UK to stay together the three leaders needed to put pressure back on Salmond to explain how Scotland could operate alone.

"It has got to the position where he appears like a commentator on the campaign," said one frustrated London official.

The last party political broadcast from the cross-party Better Together campaign is aimed at wavering and rebellious Labour voters after the latest polls suggested up to a third of them intend to vote yes in the referendum.

It features emotive black-and-white-footage of the Jarrow jobs march, of the early NHS and promotes Labour's role in introducing the minimum wage and the Scottish parliament.

It ends with Brown speaking directly to the camera, where he says: "I love Scotland. It's as simple as that. I'm proud of our history and of our culture.


Source:theguardian

http://www.theguardian.com/politics...gh-road-scotland-united-effort-avert-yes-vote
 
Scottish independence: Cameron, Clegg and Miliband make Scotland 'No' vote plea

Prime Minister David Cameron says he would be "heartbroken" if Scotland voted for independence

The leaders of the main UK parties have travelled to Scotland to urge voters to reject independence in the referendum.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he would be "heartbroken" in the event of a "Yes" vote, while Labour leader Ed Miliband said the case for the Union came from the "head, heart and soul".
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said the leaders could not be trusted.
Meanwhile, a new opinion poll has suggested 47.6% of voters back "No", 42.4% "Yes", with 10% undecided.
The new poll, by Survation for the Daily Record, was conducted before the Westminster party leaders announced their campaign visits.
Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband abandoned their usual Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons to head north, after other recent opinion polls suggested the referendum race was now neck and neck.
Although the three leaders campaigned separately, they each called on voters to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom.
The three leaders have backed a plan of action spearheaded by former prime minister Gordon Brown, which they have said would see work begin on the handover of new powers on 19 September, the day after the referendum.
Speaking in Edinburgh, Mr Cameron - who Downing Street has confirmed will return to Scotland on Monday - said he was often asked whether his party would find it easier to win UK elections without Scotland, which currently has one Tory MP.
He responded: "My answer to that is, I care far more about my country than I do about my party.
"I care hugely about this extraordinary country, this United Kingdom that we've built together.
"I would be heartbroken if this family of nations that we've put together - and we've done such amazing things together - if this family of nations was torn apart."

 
Those who dream about East African community should always take lessons here!
  1. We have India and Pakistan as two different countries
  2. The soviet Union ended
  3. Today we don't have Yugoslavia
  4. We have Czech Republic and Slovakia (Czekoslovakia is long gone)
  5. We have Ethiopia and Eritrea
  6. We have two Sudan countries today
  7. Zanzibar want full autonomy out of the United Republic of Tanzania

But here we are saying we want to unite 6 countries? Where have we seen nations uniting to form larger country? Countries are thinking of decentralizing and finally dividing into smaller nations - much easier to manage than larger nations with convolution of different kinds of people, cultures, traditions, religions, etc. East African Political integration is not a viable idea, although it sound good.

Let's talk about East African Economic cooperation; it is more realistic - Political integration is far fetched. Do we want to make another Congo?
 
Scottish independence: unionists' big guns fail to halt yes bandwagon

Scottish referendum still too close to call, as ICM poll finds the yes vote just two percentage points behind no campaign

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A pro-independence supporter holds campaign material during a rally ahead of the referendum on Scotland's independence. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

The 307-year-old union between Scotland and England hangs by a thread as a fresh Guardian/ICM poll put the yes vote in next week's referendum just two percentage points behind those supporting no.

Despite an intense week of campaigning by pro-union politicians and repeated warnings from business, the poll out on Friday found support for the no campaign on 51% and with yes on 49%, once don't knows were excluded.
The Guardian/ICM poll is based on telephone interviews conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, the first such survey ICM has conducted during the campaign. Previous polls suggesting that the race for Scotland was too close to call have been based on internet-based surveys.

The headline figures exclude the 17% of voters in Scotland who ICM found were still undecided a mere week before polling day, a substantial proportion that gives the pro-UK campaign hope that it could arrest September's surge in support for independence.
Alex Salmond, the SNP leader and first minister, said he was now "more confident than ever" that Scotland would vote yes on 18 September. "Despite Westminster's efforts we've seen a flourishing of national self-confidence," he said. "It's this revival in Scottish confidence that tells me we'll make a great success of an independent Scotland."

At a rally with former prime minister Gordon Brown in Glasgow on Friday night, Labour leader Ed Miliband reached out to the 29% of Labour voters who told ICM they planned to vote yes next week. He said only a no vote could guarantee that Scotland had the money to protect the NHS. "With a vote for no, change is coming with more powers on tax and welfare for a stronger Scotland," he said.

"Change is coming faster with a devolution delivery plan beginning the day after the referendum. And better change, faster change, safer change is the message we will take on to the streets and the doorsteps in the last few days of the campaign."

The Guardian's ICM poll had difficult findings for both campaigns, coming five days after a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times was the first to put the yes camp ahead – by two percentage points. The shock of that poll prompted David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Miliband to give speeches in Scotland on Wednesday.

But it had appeared that the yes campaign had lost momentum, as four other more recent polls gave no a narrow lead – a survey commissioned by Yes Scotland itself from Panelbase, a Survation poll for the Daily Record, a further YouGov poll, and a TNS face-to-face survey.

ICM found that the no vote is ahead across most age brackets and noted a marked gender gap. Excluding don't knows, just 45% of women plan to vote yes at this stage. But a majority of men, 52%, back independence.
Salmond is planning a helicopter tour of western and southern Scotland on Saturday as he begins his final push to end the union.
Salmond appeared to be even more bullish about the prospect of a yes result by the time he reached Perth yesterday evening, predicting that there would be a "decisive yes vote" next week.

He hit out once again at David Cameron, saying: "We are not going to be bullied by a prime minister who has been caught red-handed bringing supermarkets into his office to tell them to give negative messages to the Scottish people or a treasury who has been caught red handed in terms of what they have been doing with the release of information from banks.

"There is going to be a decisive yes vote next week and there is nothing I think that David Cameron can now do. No underhand trick, no campaign of intimidation, no campaign of bullying which is going to persuade people not to take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Salmond was also pressed by reporters for his reaction to charging of an SNP councillor following an angry confrontation with Better Together campaigners in Kinross.

"Obviously you deprecate any bad behaviour by anyone at any time – whether online or offline but let's face it we are having this extraordinary campaign mobilising tens of thousands of people," he said.
"Ninety nine point nine percent of people are behaving impeccably so obviously you deprecate bad behaviour from whatever side and you know well I have experienced personally a great deal of it."
SNP representative David MacDiarmid allegedly shouted and swore at a gathering of no vote campaigners in the centre of Kinross they put up pro-Union signs on Wednesday. He accepted a £30 on the spot fine.
 
 
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David Cameron makes emotional plea to Scotland as independence vote looms

Prime minister warns yes vote on Thursday will end UK 'for good, for ever' and deprive Scotland of shared currency


David Cameron has spelled out to the people of Scotland the stark costs of a "painful divorce" from the rest of the United Kingdom as a poll showed nearly two-thirds of voters in England and Wales objected to the idea of sharing the pound.
In an emotional but at times hard-edged speech on his last visit to Scotland before Thursday's independence referendum, the prime minister warned that a yes vote would end the UK "for good, for ever" and would deprive the Scottish people of a shared currency and pooled pension arrangements. He also asked people not to mix up the temporary and the permanent, saying neither he nor the government would "be here forever".
A Guardian/ICM poll shows Cthat 63% of voters in England and Wales objected to the post-independence currency union sought by Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister. Most people in Scotland, previous polls have shown, want a deal on sterling.
Cameron, whose voice was close to breaking, spelled out what he believed would be the costs of independence. "It is my duty to be clear about the likely consequences of a yes vote. Independence would not be a trial separation. It would be a painful divorce," he said.
He said he would be "utterly heartbroken" by a yes vote and listed the benefits of UK membership that the people of Scotland would lose, including a shared currency, armed forces built up over centuries and pension funds that would be sliced up "at some cost".
Independence would mean Scotland's border with England – and the sea routes to Northern Ireland – would become international frontiers, Cameron said, and that more than half of Scottish mortgages would suddenly be provided by banks in a foreign country.

"We want you to stay," he said. "Head and heart and soul, we want you to stay. Please don't mix up the temporary and the permanent. Please don't think: 'I'm frustrated with politics right now, so I'll walk out the door and never come back.'
"If you don't like me – I won't be here forever. If you don't like this government – it won't last forever. But if you leave the UK – that will be forever," he said.
In the short term, Cameron has to decide whether to recall parliament in the event of a yes vote, as early as the weekend or next Monday, a move that would disrupt Labour's annual conference in Manchester.
Blair Jenkins, chief executive of Yes Scotland, said Cameron's speech "was the same litany of empty threats and empty promises we have come to expect from the no campaign – and he is the prime minister who has been orchestrating the campaign of ridiculous scaremongering being directed against Scotland".
A yes vote would give Scotland its "one opportunity" to ensure it had job creation powers, Jenkins said, and end government by parties that Scottish voters did not elect, which presided over a vast increase in food banks and new nuclear weapons systems its politicians had rejected.
"Instead of believing the word of a Tory prime minister on a very few more powers, the people of Scotland can get all the powers we need to build a better, fairer country by believing in ourselves and voting yes," he said.
Cameron's comments came as Ed Miliband prepared for a return visit to central Scotland on Tuesday when the Labour leader is expected to try to woo back disillusioned Labour voters who have largely driven a late surge in support for independence.
Taking the opposite tack to Cameron, his ally in the Better Together campaign, Miliband said he believed the yes campaign had delivered a clear message to UK parties that change was needed. He insisted Labour would be the best vehicle for unseating the Tories in 2015 and delivering more progressive policies.
"The will of the people of Scotland for economic and political change has been heard and we will deliver," he is expected to tell a rally. Contrasting his offer with "a future of separation and risk" offered by an irreversible yes vote, Miliband added: "I ask the people of Scotland to lead that change of our whole British constitution."
That message risked being undermined by a Guardian ICM poll which showed Labour's support has dipped by three points to 35% across the UK, bringing the Tories to within two points at 33%. The findings are likely to increase voter anxieties in Scotland that Labour could fail to beat the Tories next May.
Miliband's offers of further significant tax and welfare powers for Holyrood were challenged by one of Scotland's leading campaigners for greater devolution, Ben Thomson of Reform Scotland. Writing for the Guardian, Ben Thomson, founder of campaign group Devo Plus, said he was close to voting yes to independence because he was so disappointed by the failure of the UK parties to make an ambitious, concrete offer for greater tax powers, beyond a promise to agree new powers next year.
In a further push by the no campaign, all three UK leaders – Cameron, Miliband and Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader – signed a front page pledge in the Daily Record newspaper entitled "the vow". It promised they would give the Scottish parliament a legal guarantee of its independence from Westminster and to protect the Treasury's funding system, known as the Barnett formula.
Along with a "categoric" statement that Holyrood had the final say on Scottish health service spending, both are major new commitments, pushed for by the paper after it accused the three leaders last week of making weak promises on devolution.
Giving Holyrood its own legal standing instead of having its power gifted to it and controlled by Westminster under Labour's original devolution settlement in 1998 was a key demand of Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, earlier this year.
The Scottish National party has repeatedly claimed that English and Welsh politicians would force Scotland to accept cuts or the loss of the Barnett formula if there was a no vote, accusing Westminster parties of being fickle.
Miliband is due to spend the rest of the week in Scotland, making a series of speeches in central Scotland and campaigning into polling day on Thursday, as Labour attempts to persuade its core vote to back the UK and to vote heavily in the referendum.
Brown sought to bolster that offensive by insisting that his party's plans to increase the tax powers and legal status of the Scottish parliament were "locked-in by a triple guarantee".
Brown said the three guarantees were that Holyrood would be given legal protection from meddling by Westminster, as well as extra powers; there would be a "clear statement of purpose for the UK guaranteeing fairness"; and a guarantee that Holyrood had the freedom to spend more on the NHS, using its new powers to set income tax rates.
On Monday the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international thinktank, warned that a yes vote was a potential risk to the global economy, the eurozone and emerging markets. Arguing that the UK was an important member of the group of rich countries, its secretary general, Angel Gurria, said: "We clearly believe that better together is perhaps the way to go."
Property website Zoopla said a flood of homes being put up for sale in the event of a yes vote could lead to a repeat of a 17.5% fall in Scottish house prices, which took place during the financial crisis of 2008.
Albert Edwards, strategist at French bank Société Générale, questioned whether a yes vote could have wider implications across Europe. "The obvious market conclusion is for a weaker sterling – but a proper old fashioned crisis is plausible. But maybe that is too parochial a vision. The sequence of events which might flow from a yes vote may be as unpredictable and as uncontrollable as those of the late 1980s in eastern Europe, which led to the ultimate demise of the USSR," said Edwards.
The White House reaffirmed on Monday its belief that it would be better for Scotland to stay in the UK. Press spokesman, Josh Earnest, repeated what President Obama said in Brussels earlier this year. "The president said that from the outside the US has a deep interest in ensuring that one of the closest allies that we'll ever have remains strong, robust and united and an effective partner with the US. This is a decision for the people of Scotland to make; we certainly respect the right of the individual Scots to make a decision along these lines, but as the president said, we have an interest [pause] in seeing the United Kingdom remain strong, robust, united," Earnest said.

 
It is such an emotional speech and I have liked this part of speech:

If you don't like me I won't be here forever. If you don't like this government – it won't last forever. But if you leave the UK – that will be forever," he said.

Mimi naona both parties will lose alot economically,politically and Millitarily.Wanasema Pia Scottish will exit from EU and NATO.Sasa hata Scottish akiexit EU AND NATO,ataishije huku majirani zako wote waliokuzunguka wakiwa members nayo ni balaa nyingine.Si tetei yeyote hapo but I respect people's freedom.According to Cameron A YES vote is irrevisible.
 
I just like the way these people are handling this issue, putting advantages of an independent Scotland and the disadvantages. However its likely that a ''YES'' vote will win.
 
Alhamisi hii nchi ya Scortland itapiga kura ya maoni ili kuamua kwamba inataka kujitenga na waingereza au la. scortland inataka kujitenga kutoka kwenye muungano uliodumu zaidi ya miaka 300.

Nchi hii ina mali myingi sana kuanzia mafuta, gesi na hata vivutio vikubwa vya utalii na wameona kwamba wakijitawala wenyewe itakuwa ni chanzo cha nchi hii kufanikiwa na kupiga hatua zaidi kimaendeleo. Jambo zuri pia ni kwa hawa mabwana wakubwa Uingereza kuruhusu watu wa nchi hiyo kupiga kura ya maoni bila vikwazo vyovyote ili watu hao wajiamulie wenyewe mustakabal wa maisha yao kama walivyofanya IRELAND miaka ya 1920 na hatinae nchi hiyo ikawa huru, pongezi Ungereza kwa hili.

Turudi nchini kwetu TZ tuna muungano ambao kwa asilimia kubwa unaendana na muungano wa uk. Upande wa Zanzibar wamekuwa wakilalamika miaka nenda rudi matatizo yaliomo kwenye muungano huu lakini hakuna kinachofanyika zaidi ya Serikali ya Tanganyika kuleta ubabe unaopelekea kuua na kutia watu magerezani, Wazanzibari washafikia hadi kudai kura ya maoni ili waamue hatima yao lakini hamna walichopata zaidi ya kuishia magerezani. Tuambieni hapa tatizo ni nini mbona kwa UK imekuwa rahisi lakini TZ ni ngumu, kuna jambo gani limejificha kwenye muungano huu mbona unang`ang`aniwa hivi, kwani muungano ni lazima na kama ingekuwa ni lazi a basi hilo wangeliona waingereza kwanza kabla ya sisi maana wao wametuziki kwa kila kitu. WAPENI WAZANZIBARI KURA YA MAONI WAAMUE WANACHOTAKA.
==================================

Scuffles broke out and insults were hurled on Tuesday as the battle for Scotland's future descended into its most acrimonious day of political fighting.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said the campaign has had "an ugly side" after he was forced to cut short a visit in Edinburgh having been jostled and heckled, while George Galloway, the Respect MP, claimed he had been told he was going to "face a bullet" at a rally in Glasgow.

With emotions running high in the final hours before polling begins on Thursday in the referendum, nationalists were accused of waging a "campaign of lies" on the NHS, with the future of the health service set to be the crucial final battleground in the referendum race.

Claim and counterclaim intensified between the two camps, but on Wednesday the SNP leader, Alex Salmond, will issue an appeal to the people of Scotland, urging them to "wake up on Friday morning to the first day of a better country".

In an open letter, Mr Salmond will urge Scots to cast their vote with "a clear head and a clear conscience", describing the moment facing them in the polling booth as "the greatest, most empowering moment any of us will ever have".

His letter concludes with the rallying call: "Let's do this." He says: "For every scare tactic, there is a message of hope, opportunity and possibility."

But on Tuesday, leaders from the No campaign claimed to be the victims of heckling and harassment, with Mr Miliband called a "f****** liar" and Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat minister, saying he was shouted down at a rally in Glasgow. Mr Galloway said he was "threatened with a bullet" at the same event.

Scottish independence: What will happen to key British institutions?

The 2015 General ElectionThe NHSThe BBCThe PoundThe ArmyThe Royal FamilySport
A succession of senior Labour figures turned on Mr Salmond, accusing him and his party of repeatedly lying by suggesting that the NHS in Scotland would be vulnerable to privatisation in the event of a No vote.

They spoke out after leaked documents showed that Scotland's health service is facing a "funding shortfall" of up to £450m in 2015-16, suggesting that deep cuts are likely after the referendum.

The leaked NHS documents, which were presented to a meeting of health board chief executives and civil servants last month, say the closure of services in Scotland will have to be considered. "The status quo and preservation of existing models of care are no longer an option given the pressing challenges we face," they read.

Mr Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, said the suggestion that NHS funding would have to be cut in order to make the savings was "absolutely untrue".

His deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, said the leaked paper highlighted the pressure being placed on Scotland's NHS from Westminster.

Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister, said Mr Salmond's "lies have been exposed, laid bare", adding: "It is the SNP who are perpetrating a lie about what the NHS can and cannot do in Scotland."

Margaret Curran, Labour's shadow Scotland Secretary, added: "We have got a campaign of lies from the SNP who are trying to tell us that the NHS is under threat when in fact it is under threat from the SNP."

Alex Neil, the Scottish Government's Health Secretary, said: "We have not been lying to people at all. We are not going to be cutting the NHS budget. We have passed a budget for this year and we have published a budget for next year and both of those show a substantial increase in spending for the NHS."

The drive for independence has led some MPs to demand that the Westminster anomaly allowing Scottish MPs to vote on England-only issues is urgently addressed. They were referring to the "West Lothian question", which was first raised in 1977 by Tam Dalyell, Labour MP for that Scottish constituency.

David Cameron hinted on Tuesday that a plan to deal with the problem was under consideration, but added that the Government was not "remotely near" creating an English Parliament.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research think-tank warned that Mr Salmond's threat to withhold Scotland's share of the UK national debt if no formal currency union is agreed after independence may backfire.

"International investors are likely to see walking away from debt as opportunistic and charge very high borrowing premiums or exclude Scotland from international capital markets," it said in a report. "This would imply an immediate return to a fiscal surplus and unprecedented austerity."

But John Swinney, Scotland's Finance Secretary, insisted that a currency union would be agreed after a Yes vote "because it's in the overwhelming financial interest of the rest of the UK as well as an independent Scotland".
Click to expand...

Chanzo: independent
 
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Will the ayes have it, or will Scotland say naw thanks?
No one is certain. Excitement and anxiety mounted across the country Wednesday, the final day of campaigning before Thursday's referendum on independence.
With opinion polls suggesting the result is too close to call and turnout expected to reach record levels, supporters of separation feel they are within touching distance of victory — but wonder whether their surge in the polls will be enough.

Scottish voters who want to stay in the United Kingdom along with England, Wales and Northern Ireland fear the nation they live in may soon cease to exist.
The battle for Scotland has all the trappings of a normal election campaign: "Yes Scotland" and "No, Thanks" posters in windows, buttons on jackets, leaflets on street corners and megaphone-topped campaign cars cruising the streets.
But it is, both sides acknowledge, a once-in-a-generation — maybe once-in-a-lifetime — choice that could redraw the map of the United Kingdom.
The gravity of the imminent decision was hitting home for many voters as political leaders made passionate, final pleas for their sides. More than 4.2 million people are registered to vote, 97 percent of the eligible electorate.
Cathy Chance, who works for Britain's National Health Service in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, said she would leave Scotland if it becomes independent.
"I don't want to live under a nation that's nationalistic," she said. "I don't think the world needs another political barrier."
Roisin McLaren, a Yes campaigner, said she was finally letting herself believe independence might be possible.
"My family has campaigned for independence for a long, long time, and it's always been a pipe dream," the Edinburgh University student said as she knocked on doors in a last-minute effort to convert wavering electors. "Just in the last few days it's seemed possible, within reach. I can almost taste it."
Politicians on both sides expressed confidence in the Scottish public, but uncertainty rippled below the surface.
Opinion polls have failed to put either side decisively ahead. Bookmakers, however, tell a different story. A winning 1 pound bet on Yes would pay out 5 pounds from many bookies, while the same pound would return just 1.20 from a winning wager on No. One firm, Betfair, has already paid out on a No win.
Alistair Darling, who leads the anti-independence "Better Together" campaign, said if voters had doubts about independence "be in no doubt you have to say 'No.'"
"If we vote to leave, there is no going back," he said.
But "Yes Scotland" campaign Chairman Dennis Canavan told voters: "Let's go for it."Amid the uncertainty, even the opinionated Rupert Murdoch is hedging his bets. The media mogul, whose newspapers were long considered a powerful force in British elections, traveled to Scotland last week and wrote a series of tweets that seemed supportive of independence.
But on Wednesday his Scottish tabloid newspaper said it would not endorse either side. It ran opinion columns by Yes and No leaders and told Scots: "The Scottish Sun has faith in you to make the right choice."
A Yes vote will trigger months of negotiations between Scotland and the British government over the messy details of independence, which Scottish authorities say will take effect on March 24, 2016, the anniversary of the date in 1707 that Scotland decided to unite with Britain.
In Edinburgh, an unscientific but popular sweet-toothed survey has backed pollsters' predictions that the result will be close. For 200 days, the city's Cuckoo Bakery has sold referendum cupcakes — vanilla sponge with a center of raspberry jam, topped with white chocolate icing — in three versions, adorned with a Scottish Saltire, a British Union Jack or a question mark.
On Wednesday, the bakery announced the result of its cupcake referendum: 47.7 percent No, 43.5 percent Yes, and 8.8 percent undecided.
Co-owner Vidya Sarjoo said the number of undecideds had plummeted over time.
"At first people really weren't sure — a bit scared, maybe, to make their decision," she said.
The cupcakes, she stressed, "are all exactly the same flavor. And they all taste delicious."
 
Hivi hawa scots bila oil wealthy waliyonayo wangeweza even dream of this secession vote?very close lakini at the end they will stay with London..I think.
 
LONDON - The speeches have been made, the analysis papers written and debated, and both sides have stumped their hearts out. Now it's time for Scotland to decide.


Voters Thursday will choose whether Scotland continues its union with England that has endured more than 300 years or forge into full independence, becoming the 31st country formed since World War II.
On his final visit to Scotland before the historic referendum, British Prime Minister David Cameron addressed supporters of his Conservative Party in Aberdeen, the epicenter of Scotland's $36 billion oil industry.
"Independence would not be a trial separation," Cameron said there this week, his voice at times full of emotion. "It would be a painful divorce."


Cameron could go down in history as presiding over the loss of one-third of the United Kingdom's land mass, 8% of its population, about 10% of its tax revenue and an incalculable amount of cultural and intellectual capital.
"I speak for millions of people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and many in Scotland, too, who would be utterly heartbroken by the breakup of our United Kingdom," he said.


In the book How the Scots Invented the Modern World, the American author and historian Arthur Herman wrote about the disproportionate role played by tiny Scotland - population 5.3 million - in shaping the modern era, from markets to politics to science. With the vote three days away, polling shows the balloting is too close to call.
Queen Elizabeth, President Obama, Pope Francis, the Bank of England, the European Union and even Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling have urged caution against seceding from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. On Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cited Scotland's potential independence as one of a number of geopolitical risks that may affect global growth.



Such warnings have not substantially seeped into those seeking to lead Scotland down a constitutionally uncertain path. From Aug. 1 to Sept. 8, Facebook had more than 10 million referendum-related posts, comments and likes from across the U.K., according to data provided by the social media firm based in Menlo Park, Calif. More than 8.5 million of those interactions came from Facebook users in Scotland - a number twice the size of eligible voters.

Interactions around the phrase "Vote Yes" outpaced "Vote No" by 2-to-1. Twice as many people had conversations based around the name of Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond than around Alistair Darling, the leader of the No campaign.



On Tuesday, Salmond dismissed what he called the "last-minute, desperate offer of nothing" from Cameron, the prime minister's Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg and opposition Labor leader Ed Miliband.
The trio pledged to give Scots more powers over their own affairs in the event of a No vote. This "is not going to dissuade people in Scotland from the huge opportunity of taking Scotland's future into Scotland's hands this Thursday," Salmond said on BBC radio.



There are also efforts to rally support south of the border in England, even though Scottish residence is a requirement for being able to vote in the referendum.
"We don't have a voice, but we do have an opinion and that is: We believe unity is better than division, and co-operation is better than competition," British historian Dan Snow told a union-supporting crowd in Trafalgar Square on Monday evening.

Kim Hjelmgaard is USA TODAY's deputy world editor, based in London.

MY OPINION:
It's the battle of the "Banks" and the Bank of England will win. London finances almost everything in Scotland, and their exit will cripple the economy of Scotland. Already Lloyds and RBS announced their plans to move out. Australian, Dutch and Icelandic banks too. Oil, unlike wat most people think, is not a deciding factor.
The "Diaspora"- Zanzibaras in our case - will decide this poll. I predict a 51-53% win for Nah!
cc. Mchambuzi
 
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