Pro-independence “Yes” campaigners stage a demonstration outside the BBC Scotland headquarters in Glasgow yesterday.

AFP/London

 

 

Campaigners for and against Scottish independence raced to win over undecided voters ahead of Thursday’s historic referendum, as religious leaders prayed for harmony and music fans gathered for a separatist concert.

The Church of Scotland’s moderator John Chalmers called for Scots to “live in harmony with one another” whatever the result and hailed the run-up to the independence vote as “a wonderful democratic concerto”.

“All of those who will vote ‘Yes’ and all of those who will vote ‘No’ need to remember that we belong together in the same Scotland,” he said in a service at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in the capital Edinburgh.

“We cannot afford to lose the momentum and interest in civic life which this campaign has generated,” said Chalmers, whose Church represents the largest religious group in Scotland.

The pro-union camp had been far ahead in the polls for many months, but the difference has narrowed in recent weeks and a raft of surveys over the weekend indicated that the vote could go either way.

An Opinium survey for Sunday’s Observer newspaper put “No” at 47.7% and “Yes” at 42.3%, with 10% not voting or not sure if they would.

A poll by Panelbase for the Sunday Times with the undecideds taken out gave “No” the slimmest of margins with 50.6% to 49.4%.

An ICM online poll for the Sunday Telegraph meanwhile gave the nationalists 49%, ahead of the pro-UK camp at 42% with 9% undecided, although pollsters warned the sample size was too small.

“The polls show that the referendum is on a knife-edge. There is everything to play for,” said Blair Jenkins, chief executive of the “Yes Scotland” campaign.

Both sides are scrambling to win over the undecided voters who could hold the balance. “We’re not aiming to win by one vote, we’re aiming to achieve a substantial majority,” Scotland’s pro-independence First Minister Alex Salmond told BBC television. “This is a once in a generation opportunity,” he said.

His chief opponent Alistair Darling, a former finance minister, met with financial industry workers in Edinburgh amid concern about the economic impact if Scotland votes “Yes”. “This is going to go down to the wire but I think we will win because I don’t think Scotland is going to get bullied into accepting something that it doesn’t want,” he said.

Their comments came ahead of a pro-independence concert in Edinburgh yesterday dubbed “A Night for Scotland” that was headlined by the Scottish bands Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai and Frightened Rabbit.

A key battleground for the two camps has been Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city.

At St Andrew’s Catholic Cathedral, 67-year-old volunteer Tony Maddon said he was opposed to independence. “Myself and my wife are both firm ‘No’ voters. We’ve already voted by postal vote. We’re British!” he said. “I think we’re better off together. Small things don’t normally go very far in the world,” the pensioner added.

 

 

Nationalists march against ‘biased’ BBC coverage

 

Some 2,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Glasgow yesterday to protest against the BBC’s coverage of Scotland’s independence referendum, four days before the knife-edge vote. Demonstrators claimed that coverage by the British broadcaster has been biased against the separatist “Yes” camp, which wants Scotland to break away from the rest of Britain. They chanted and waved banners in favour of independence as they marched from the city’s George Square along the banks of the River Clyde to the headquarters of BBC Scotland. First Minister Alex Salmond this week accused the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson of heckling him at a media briefing. Salmond, who is leading the “Yes” campaign, also told this week’s Sunday Herald newspaper that the BBC’s coverage was biased. “Don’t get me wrong, I like these folk, but they don’t realise they’re biased. It’s the unconscious bias which is the most extraordinary thing of all,” he said.