Alex Salmond: yes movement is greatest campaign in Scottish history
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Version 0 of 1. The mass campaign for Scottish independence has become the biggest popular uprising against Westminster in modern history, Alex Salmond said on Wednesday, as he hosted the final yes vote rally on the eve of Thursday's referendum. As the final batch of polls suggested the no vote still had a narrow but consistent lead, the first minister told the rally in Perth that the yes movement had been "the greatest campaign in Scottish history – and you the greatest campaigners." With the polls suggesting that the prospects of a yes win are now fading after four separate surveys put yes at 48% to 52% for no, Salmond adopted a cautious tone, asserting that the yes campaign's greatest legacy was its political empowerment. A fifth poll by Ipsos MORI for STV put support for the yes campaign at 49%, compared with 51% for no. With the country on the cusp of "the most exciting day in Scottish democracy," Salmond appeared to acknowledge his victory was not assured. He was due to tell the rally at Perth concert hall: "If we win tomorrow – and that is now in your hands – it will be because of the thousands of individuals all across Scotland who have become leaders in their communities. "But the reaction of the Westminster establishment to this demonstration of people power is telling. It's the reaction of the powerful few who believe they always know what is best – that power should always be in their hands." On an earlier visit to Stewarton, Ayrshire, on a final leg of breakneck tour of west and south-west Scotland by car and helicopter, Salmond had suggested he still believed a yes vote was possible. Yes Scotland is to despatch a fleet of people-carriers and buses across Scotland to take up to 300,000 elderly and first time voters to the polls; tens of thousands of activists are to fan out across towns and cities to mobilise voters. "My confidence is based on what's happening in the streets and communities around Scotland. I think there's a very substantial movement towards yes," Salmond said in Stewarton. It was not simply an anti-Tory protest vote. "When people go into the polling booths tomorrow they are going to vote for something, for that vision of more prosperous but also a more just society. That's what's going to motivate people in the polling stations tomorrow." Yet as he spoke Panelbase released the first of several polls due out on Wednesday , the final day of campaigning. It too put the no vote at 52% and yes at 48%. Panelbase's survey also suggested voters would be more cautious in the polling booth: it found that slightly more, at 53%, thought they would vote no on the day. But those figures still imply that nearly 2 million of the 4.3 million Scottish voters registered for the referendum would back independence on Thursday. As the SNP's core nationalist vote is less than a third of the population, the yes campaign has reached voters from Labour, across the radical left and the Scottish greens to push their support close to 50%. Willie Sullivan, director of the Scottish branch of the Electoral Reform Society, which campaigns for voting reform and decentralisation, said that scale of support for independence suggested a historic level of antipathy for the current structures of the UK. He added that many no voters wanted significant change, too, voting to stay in the UK because Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems were promising greater devolution. Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, has implied he will press on with reforming the House of Lords, and is backing greater devolution within England. "What the Scottish vote shows is that the British state model of power being held in Westminster and operating through outdated conventions and steam age ways of working has just been rejected by a lot of the Scottish people," Sullivan said. "We can assume that a lot of no voters want to reject that as well, but they can see some benefits from partnership." Before launching into a scathing attack on the rushed joint commitment by the UK parties to guarantee extra powers for Holyrood, Salmond is told activists in Perth that Scotland would always seek a "harmonious relationship" with the rest of the UK if it votes for independence. "In an independent Scotland you will find the closest friend, most honest counsel and most committed ally. What we seek is a relationship of equals in these isles for our mutual advantage," he said. But seizing on a growing revolt by backbench Tory MPs over David Cameron's backing for a deal to offer greater tax powers to Scotland, while protecting its preferential Treasury funding scheme under the Barnett formula, Salmond said the UK parties' promises were already looking at serious risk. "So the Westminster parties cobble together separate, contradictory proposals for more powers – none of which offer any answers to the real challenges we face. They fail to come up with an agreed package that the voters can judge and scrutinise and vote on," Salmond said. "Instead they say 'leave it to us, we will sort it out' – behind closed doors, among themselves in the committee rooms of Westminster. "It is an approach out of touch and out of time. But let's be clear – in the event of a no vote, even if such a deal could be struck, it wouldn't be the people of Scotland who would have the final say." He added: "It is the clearest demonstration yet of why Scotland's future must be in Scotland's hands. It makes the case for yes more clearly than ever. Tomorrow with a yes vote we can deliver for Scotland real power – the power to choose hope over fear, opportunity over despair." Separately, speaking to the Guardian, Salmond said of Cameron: " Should he resign. At first, I thought no. But now I don't know. The way he has fought the campaign in Scotland has been miserable. His jacket is on a shoogly nail. You would not need to resign if you fought it properly but it was the way he did it. Just on the grounds of incompetence he should be pulled up. His conduct has been demeaning." |