I'm afraid to say that this is simply untrue. "So inept" was the Yes campaign that they had the 3 main political leaders of the UK running about like headless chickens begging Scotland to remain in the union. When the first polls were done, the Better together campaign was miles ahead, it seemed there was no possibility at all of the Yes vote winning but that changed, and how. As for "rabble rousing" can you give me an example?
Was all kicking off in Glasgow last night, fighting, smashing up the town... FFS Can we not have a recount?
Didn't look like that to me, NO campaigners celebrating and singing GSTQ then a pack of chavs wade in and lamp them. Reminiscent of the bunch of ****ing idiots who trashed my city a few years ago. I'm not saying we're any better by the way, just didn't expect it.
I stand by the ineptitude statement - there was a belief in Westminster that this was a foregone conclusion and so they didn't need to try, they misjudged that spectacularly and ended up having to throw in all of the heavyweights and making all sorts of promises that were not on the table until the polls started going against them. Had Alex's manifesto been strong enough in all of the key areas he would have been able to show up these promises for the panic measures they were. "Rabble rousing" is I accept perhaps a bit strong but I believe that if the SNP had had comprehensive and well thought out answers to all of the tricky questions they could have knocked them down one by one, but instead they left them all hanging unanswered and concentrated purely on whipping up populist support. I don't claim to be as close to this as you are but I do a lot of work in Scotland and time and again I was told that individuals felt they could not vote yes because there was so much left not only unanswered but completely unaddressed. I believe that there was a majority in favour of Scotland going it alone but too many of them felt they could not commit with so much being left up in the air. I further believe that if the opportunity comes again in say another 5 years then the 10% difference could easily be swung over with a more considered campaign that didn't leave so much hanging unaddressed.
It'll be years before another vote Riever. No one in Parliament is likely to even consider it. It was stated time and again, on both sides, that it was a once in a generation event. You're right about the ineptitude though. They've had years to practice their arguments and have answers ready for the hard questions and they ****ed it up. They thought they'd win on a wave of national triumphalism but they under-estimated the canniness of the older generation who saw through the limp answers to those tough questions. They also underestimated the intellect of the youngest voters who they thought they had in their back pocket. In the coming weeks, Salmond and his cronies are going to be made to look both stupid and downright arrogant!
Ultimately running an independence campaign with so much gray area to still be resolved led to the No vote winning. Too many unanswerable questions. It was a vote about individuals legacy's, not what's best for Scotland imo.
Stand by it if you like, it does not make it any less wrong. The White Paper on Independence was published a year ago and yet it's only in the last few months that banks and other industry leaders came forward to question it. What they gave was not fact but merely opinion, it can never be proven to be true or not. If there are holes in the white paper then that is only to be expected, it's such a seismic change that people were naturally wary but it's to Salmond's credit that 45% thought he was right even when doom and gloom forecasts were raining down from severely concerned parties of self interest.
The company's who said prices would go up were talking fact. They said prices would go up, they set their prices, therefore I don't really see what's opinion about it. They were telling Scotland what was going to happen. When the Gas companies say the prices are going to go up next year, I sure as hell know it's not opinion and they are going to it.
I wish that the 'yes' supporters would just accept that democracy has run it's course and Scottish people have decided their future, 'Flower of Scotland' and the Saltire do not just belong to the 1.5m+ who cast their vote to leave the UK, it also represents the 2m+ who expressed their desire to remain. Those Scots who voted to remain within the UK are no less Scottish than the 'yes' voters, yet the child like rhetoric from the Salmond and Sturgeon supporters suggest that they are pariahs who have betrayed their country. It was a democratic decision which should be respected by all sides of the debate, the result of the vote actually showed that 28 out of 32 councils elected to remain in the UK, that is a landslide in my opinion.
Do you really believe that the SNP and the Yes supporters ran the best possible campaign they could have done?
I don't think anybody realistically thinks that now. Too much hyperbole and promise, not enough substance.
No one predicted the result would be so close 2 years ago, at that time polls indicated about 70% for the status quo, so either the Better together were inept or the Yes campaign was. Having watched it at close hand and being involved in discourse with fellow Scots I can assure you that plenty of people were not scared into inaction and the results prove that. The yes campaign lost 15% of it's support, whether that was down to their ineptitude of Better Together or the Yes campaign's argument depends on your view, I just happen to think they ran a very good campaign, they convinced me. I was a probable No this time last year.
Could it be down to the current political climate and the austerity measures of the last couple of years?
Indeed, partly. I didn't dig out my kilt and bagpipes and head for the hills to fight for freedom from the Redcoats, that sadly is the typical view of a Yes voter. I considered everything I heard and read and made up my own mind, Salmond may have had an influence on my change of heart, i'm not a fan of him or the SNP, but this vote was never about him and them, it was simply down to a need for real change.
My mum, who is a pensioner, was at an event at St George's Tron church in Nelson Mandela place last night. The event was to celebrate the charity work that she had been involved in during the commonwealth games and had nothing to do with the referendum in which she voted no. When she arrived at Queens Street station there was a peaceful get together going on. She assumed it was a Yes celebration because it was mainly Saltires being waved. As she was walking to the church (its only 200 yards if that) she was passed by a group of Union Jack waving thugs who charged towards George Square. She got nothing more than a fright and the offense of being sworn at. Others were less lucky, including another elderly woman who was knocked off her feet by those running past. Nobody stopped to see if she was ok. Not long after that, the police entered the church and advised them to lock the doors and not let anybody leave, as two groups of thugs had charged George Square from either end in an organised attempt to attack the Yes campaign celebration. The same policeman also said the violence looked to have been carried out by members of the orange order judging by the slogans on the Union Jacks. Two hours later everyone was still locked in the church for their own safety. Eventually my mum and the others there were given a police escort away from the church and taken to Partick station because the violence was still going on at Queen Street. I don't fall down on either side of the sectarian debate, but those bastards there last night - nothing more than vile animals - need to take a long hard look at themselves. Big hard men frightening elderly women and knocking them to the ground, disrupting people going about their business and bringing shame to Glasgow and Scotland. I hope the police identify all of them, prosecute them and throw away the keys. These were 100% unionist supporters. What would they have done if they hadn't won???
There you go again, a real need for change for who, the 1.5m+ minority who voted yes or the 2m+ majority who voted no?
