todayinscotland

The last post before the referendum finds me nervous and excited in equal measure. The clock has ticked down to the final 24 hours of a long, frenetic and at times infuriating campaign which has produced heroes and villains aplenty. It’s unlikely that any undecided voters are reading this because if you’re still undecided with one day to go, you probably don’t care that much but in the interests of fairness a brief synopsis of the state of play may be in order.

You have to vote Yes.

Better Together are awful. Really awful. They are an anti-campaign; a campaign that has no redeeming qualities, no cogent arguments, no charismatic personalities, no grassroots membership, no vision of the future, no humour, passion or integrity.
They are liars.
They are backed by millionaires, Eton educated politicians, corporate interests, media shills, bigots and racists. They are not the good guys. If the referendum debate was a game of Cluedo, everyone would know from the outset it was Alastair Darling, in the kitchen, with a rolled up Daily Mail.

“Labour party supporters are working class scum, they’re a virus that should be eradicated, just a bunch of nazis”
David Cameron, April 2015

How would you rate his chances in next years election if he actually said that? How soon would he be replaced?
The answers would be zero and immediately yet this has been Labours method of winning over voters.
Politicians attack each other ruthlessly in order to score points but Better Together are the first campaign in history to change the rules and attack the population. Lamont, Sarwar, Murphy, Davidson and Darling have disgraced themselves, disgraced their party and disgraced Scotland. The only reason they still have jobs is because the media in Scotland have steadfastly refused to punish them in the way they would a member of Yes.
The pro union campaign, with Labour at its head, have waged a war of vitriol, fear and lies. They have preached inflammatory rhetoric aimed at marginalising and demonising a huge percentage of the population, an electorate they expect to fall into line in the event of a no and vote them into office next year.
No fucking chance.

Every scare they raise is debunked almost immediately, every rebranding ripe for parody, every marketing campaign an own goal. They don’t understand Scotland, even those who live here, yet they have power that cannot be underestimated. They are the establishment; they have the money, they have the media, they have influence that we can only dream of.
They cannot be allowed to win.

A no vote is a victory for deceit, dishonesty and shameless self interest. It is a victory for a corrupt and partisan media, vested interests and a philosophy that Scotland has long rejected. It is the triumph of fear over hope, privilege over integrity and stagnation over progress. A no vote in any normal society should be anathema to us all.

The contrast with the Yes movement is stark. The commitment, passion and sheer positivity on display is humbling, from the political leaders to the thousands of ordinary people canvassing on the doorsteps. The movement has heart and soul, it has creativity, humour, intelligence and direction. We have our individuals, our heroes who step up to the plate. Lyndsay, the Indy climber who scaled the cliff below Edinburgh castle to place a Yes sign as a two fingered rebuff to Gordon Browns transplant scaremongering, Mark Coburn, who cycled from Rome to Scotland to raise funds for local Yes groups and who subsequently raised money for Maryhill food bank, Matt Lygate, the rickshaw man, who hijacked the arrival of Labour MPs in Glasgow and turned what should have been a media coup for Better Together into a scene from Monty Python.

There are more, many more, ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I cried when I watched the video from Wales, Stanley Odds beautiful wee song ‘Son, I Voted Yes’ had the same affect on me. Whenever I’ve had moments of doubt about the outcome, someone, somewhere does or says something which brings a smile to my face and renews my conviction. Chris Law and the Spirit of Independence, Derek Batemans inspiring journalism, the bloggers, the Freedom Convoys, the BBC protests, the wee blue book, Facebook groups, songs, stories, animations, plays.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It is overwhelming.

A special mention must go the resource which has given us ammunition to combat the nonsense peddled by the media. Stuart Campbell and Wings Over Scotland has been a godsend to this movement, eruditely deconstructing every myth and falsehood with a thoroughness that puts our established journalists to shame. If independence comes, history should rightly mark their contribution.

We cannot live our lives in fear of change. Change happens all the time, every day; no one knows what’s around the corner. The eyes of the world are on us now, press from every corner of the globe are in our wee country. A no vote is not the story they want. A rejection of independence will not make history, we will be an inconsequential footnote, the first country to spurn the right to self determination. It would be an insult to the belief, labour and imagination of everyone who has invested so much of themselves to make this happen.

We can and will be a successful nation. Another Scotland is possible. You can make it possible.
Vote Yes.