With less than a day until Scots go to the polls even Edinburgh’s relatively reserved demeanour has changed and campaigners from both Yes and No camps have taken to the busy city centre to sway those last few swing voters that could determine the future of the United Kingdom.
Referendum interest in the city has approached fever pitch in the past seven days, with hundreds of pro-Unionist supporters joining a 12,000 Orange Order march, while pro-Independence supporters filled Usher Hall in a star-studded gig headlined by rockers Franz Ferdinand and Mogwai.
The campaigners are a diverse bunch: Across from Edinburgh’s Waverley Station one from the Disability Solidarity Network is convincing voters to vote Yes and keep the NHS in Scottish hands, while a Canadian couple is canvassing next to him to keep the Union together.
The thick fog has cleared from Edinburgh’s winding, cobblestone alleys and the locals expect sun tomorrow, even if it is not yet clear whether it will greet a nation looking for its autonomy without the Union.
According to today’s final polls by ICM, Survation and Opinium the narrowest of margins can sway the referendum as all three research agencies showed support for independence at 48 percent and against it at 52 percent.
Although the Yes movement has publicly overtaken the look of cities Glasgow and Edinburgh and has seized virtually every referendum hashtag on social media, when speaking to Newsweek most Scots seem divided down the middle on the question of independence.
Michael, a 21-year-old from Edinburgh, tells me he’s voting Yes for “a number of reasons,” one of which is his dislike for the Conservative (Tory) party, who currently governs Scotland on a mandate from constituencies almost exclusively outside of Scotland itself.
“For one, Scotland has more pandas than Tory MPs, yet in 22 of the last 35 years, Scotland has been ruled by Conservative governments in Westminster.”
“Whereas the Con-Dem government continued the Thatcherite consensus of privatising vital public services; as seen with the Royal Mail corporate sell-off, the SNP will bring Royal Mail back in public hands.”
Another recurring issue which Yes voters like Michael whom I speak to, bring up as a reason for their choice the SNP’s promise to abolish the highly unpopular “bedroom tax” which currently imposes financial benefit cuts on those in council accommodation with more rooms than they need.
Ewan, a 38-year-old shop assistant, will be voting Yes even if he’s not sure SNP has the best people in place to lead an independent Scotland. Speaking about the three-party promise of giving Scottish parliament “full autonomy” over taxation of Scots he said “if we are going to get false promises from politicians they may as well be ones we voted for in the first place.”
Mary, a 22-year-old University of Edinburgh student, is undecided but leaning on voting No. “Over 90 percent of academic funding comes from the U.K. government and a lot of our academics have started moving south of the border because they are afraid a no vote would leave them without funding.”
There is a real feeling in Edinburgh that tomorrow will be, regardless of the referendum’s outcome, the first day of a new kind of Scotland. Tomorrow night will show whether this new kind of Scotland fits in a United Kingdom or not.
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