I've been following how predictive polls are for a number of US presidential elections. They've always been very nearly spot on, despite an enormous number of people with an enormous number of explanations as to why they will be wrong. Therefore, the last set of polls settling in at 53-47 would make me willing to bet a very large sum that "no" wins. Unfortunately.
Ok boys. A CNN presenter has said if yes then 18 months of negotiating will begin before Scotland can really go it alone.
Evening all, an amazing day. After voting in my village I went to Lanark where I spent the day with YES Clydesdale. I have been to poling stations in the area checking on turnouts and greeting voters. Later about twenty of us went on tour in one of the YES coaches complete with loudspeaker, music, calling out the vote. Throughout the day there have been friendly exchanges between the No and Yes groups, no signs of any trouble at all. We even had a visit from a couple of No voters to the YES hub and pictures were taken together. The turnout looks to be very high with figures from 80% to an amazing 97% to be confirmed as postal votes are counted. This gives you an idea of how this referendum has moved a nation into politics.
80-97% turnout. The US is lucky to get half that. Though it might help if our two parties were something other than Republican and Republican Lite.
If Texas had a vote on whether to leave the union, and a two year campaign, I'm sure you'd see similar numbers. These figures are incomparable with your once every few years election figures.
Lanark! In the 60's I used to receive programmes sent to me by the secretary of the Third Lanark supporters. I followed them from afar and was so upset when they folded.They had an interesting history too. Always said I would go visit Cathkin Park one day.Never did though,or visit Scotland. I believe even in Scotland they weren't one hundred per cent natural Scots.I think many Irish settled there many centuries ago......and today,Asian and central European people have come in.I wonder what they will do....if they have the vote?
Good to see you back bigsmithy, Third Lanark was a Glasgow team named after a Scottish Regiment. Lanark is somewhere else.
Scotland got its name from an Irish people who crossed back into Ireland, and its majority language, Scots English, from Norwegian Vikings who also settled in Scotland in large numbers. (The other language, Scots Gaelic, arose from some mixture of the originally Irish Scots and local Celts.) The characteristic Scots English words like bairn and loch are cognates with Old Norse (barn ok loch). In other words, like most places, it was a melting pot of disparate ethnic and linguistic elements. Bruce is a French name (though Wallace means Gallic, or Celtic). The bizarre thing is that Old Norse and Old English were so closely related (only splitting somewhere between 2500 and 2000 years ago) they reunited, if incompletely. Most believe that English lost most of its grammar due to the constant need of people speaking closely related languages to understand each other. And then, while this process was underway, the Normans arrived, also descended from Vikings but speaking Old French. Not to be disagreeable, but I believe quite seriously that 80% of Americans wouldn't vote to save their lives. We stay away from the polls in astonishing numbers. Certainly a real choice of any kind would get a better turnout, though I can't imagine many in Texas want independence at this point. The burning political issue of our time in the US is whether we should loot the country on behalf of the rich, on the one hand, or loot the country on behalf of the rich while babbling on about the Rapture, on the other. (EDIT) I stand mostly corrected, WY. 78% of Puerto Ricans turned out to vote on a complicated independence referendum.
Third Lanark reformed as an amateur side and play in Cathkin Park in the Greater Glasgow Amateur League.
