Hey Owlbread, it's happening this month, what's the feeling on the streets about the prospects of independence? I know you're optimistic, but what are your compatriots generally feeling?
My grassroots compatriots in the Yes movement are generally feeling more optimistic than I am and remain overwhelmingly positive. They (along with senior campaigners like the First Minister) still believe 100% that, despite the polls rising (as I said earlier YouGov has now risen to 47% Yes, 53% No - which is amazing considering they were our worst pollster) they do not fully gauge the swing in the Scottish electorate towards Yes. Alex Salmond described something like 200,000 people registering to vote in the referendum for the first time and in his own words "they aren't registering to vote No." If the YouGov poll is taken as gospel, with a turnout of 75% the Yes vote is behind by 150,000 votes. This is a number that can be overcome with both turnout and hard campaigning to swing the remaining undecideds our way. I have certainly noticed very large numbers of people swinging to Yes in the last while, including one of my best friends who was hitherto undecided. There is a genuine feeling of excitement in the air and more and more people on all sides and none are saying "Good christ, the Yes campaigners might actually do this".
Yet as always I am still very cautious of claiming victory or even saying it is likely we will win - there is a good chance, yes, but "likely?" I will believe it when I see it and I fear that the more ground we gain the more fearful the British establishment will become, god forbid we get a Yes majority poll before the vote. I fear we may feel the full brunt of MI5 and all sorts of dirty tricks at the last minute. At the moment Better Together, who know they are losing ground left, right and centre to Yes Scotland, who are
a genuine grassroots movement, are trying to bring down the debate as much as possible through smear campaigns and alleging assault/an atmosphere of intimidation; like calling for huge police investigations if one of their street campaigners gets egged. All they can do is shit up the debate as much as possible so nobody wants to take part in it anymore.
The last time Britain came this close to losing one of its constituent countries in the Isles in the 1920s (within living memory) they sent in
paramilitary death squads to murder people. God, I must sound like Ukrainian Ranger or Guardian G.I. talking about Nazis and I know that will never happen now, but the point is Britain will go to great lengths, even beyond the law if they can manage it without being noticed, to ensure that it retains its grip over territories it considers strategically crucial. My sincerest hope is that's all my own paranoia and nonsense, I really do.