Scottish referendum: all over bar the smiling

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/19/scottish-referendum-all-over-bar-the-smiling

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Shortly before 10pm a posse of senior Scottish Labour party members marched briskly through the media centre for the Edinburgh referendum count. It wasn't the speed that was remarkable; despite weeks of deep cleaning, the Royal Highland Centre hadn't quite been able to rid itself of the agricultural smell of August's Royal Highland Show.

It was the smiles. These were smiles that were worn to be noticed. Politicians don't walk past hacks with smiles on their faces two minutes before polling closes by accident. These were smiles designed to show they were confident the no campaign had squeezed its way over the line.

Over in the main hall where the count was due to begin, no one else was quite so sure. Rows of tables were set out in a vast floodlit hall. The yellow high-vis jackets that every counter had been forced to wear seemed like overkill. Maybe it was just to differentiate them from all the people running around in red jackets with different letters on the back. "S is for Supervisor," I was told. What about ACM? "Assistant Count Manager." BS? This time there was a pause. "You can maybe work that one out for yourself." Maybe the smell in the building was more recent than anyone thought.

Waiting. Waiting. Politicians, activists, officials and journalists: everyone was waiting. The most intense, engaged election campaign ever held in the UK had just ended and nobody was too sure how to fill the final hours of limbo before the result was announced. The main displacement activity was for everyone to ask everyone else if they knew what the hell was likely to happen. The honorary consul for Norway looked particularly lost. "Do you know when any announcement is likely to be made?" he asked. He didn't look particularly happy to discover he might have to hang around till the early morning to hear the result. "Are you sure?" Yes. "Mmm. Maybe I will come back."

Things began to warm up a bit around 10.30pm as the broadcasters shuffled the talking heads between themselves. Dennis Canavan, the New Labour refusenik turned independent, was in particular demand. Around the tables for Edinburgh West where the postal votes were being counted, a Yes campaigner was looking gloomy. "It's 77-33 for the Nos so far," he said. "It's about what we expected here, though." It didn't look that way.

Not everyone was that subdued, though. A "Business for Scotland" Yes supporter called Mr Hussein came over. "Who are you with?" he asked. The Guardian. "You have been very biased," he declared. "May you burn in hell. With Scottish oil." With that he flung his arms out and hugged me. "I came here from Huddersfield in 1969 and we're all basically the same aren't we? Whatever the result, when all this is over I am going to have a big party. And I'm going to invite you too. You've got to have a laugh haven't you?"

He seemed to be the only person in the hall feeling that way at that particular moment. Within hours another 50% of the hall would be laughing just as loudly. A YouGov poll suggested it would be the noes. The question left hanging was how long it would take all the other yes campaigners other than Mr Hussein to start laughing again.