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Scotland decides: millions of voters pour into polling stations

From the very old to the very young, voters make the most important and far-reaching political decision of their lifetimes

Scots turn out to vote in Scottish referendum
A yes supporter plays the bagpipes, as voters gather outside a polling station in Edinburgh during voting in the independence referendum. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

It was decision day and from the northernmost Shetland isle of Unst to the southernmost hamlet of Cairngaan, Scotland was deciding.

Queues had formed at polling stations before the doors opened and a record turnout was expected as the fate of the UK was determined by one simple yes/no question at the ballot box: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”

Some 4,285,323 people – 97% of the Scottish electorate – had registered to vote in this, the busiest day in Scottish electoral history, with some predicting a turnout of more than 80%. The future of the 307-year-old union with England would be determined. For the first time, 16- and 17-year-olds were voting, adding an extra uncertainty.

A final Ipsos-Mori poll, released on Thursday, put support for the no side at 53% and yes at 47%. The pound had a good day against the dollar, buoyed by a slew of pre-result polls putting the no camp ahead. But the undecideds – about 4% of the electorate according to that final poll – were still all to play for.

The leaders of the yes and no campaigns were upbeat. “I got a fantastic night’s sleep,” chirruped Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, as he cast his vote at Ritchie Hall, Strichen, in his Aberdeenshire constituency. “Obviously there’s a great deal of anticipation: it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; it’s a day that everybody will remember,” he added. Joined by two first-time voters, Natasha McDonald, 18, and Lea Pirie, 28, he handed both women a soft yes toy as a memento.

Support came in the form of Andy Murray, who, said Salmond, “had hit another winner this morning” after the tennis star’s apparent late backing for team yes when he tweeted: “Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!”

At Church Hill theatre in Edinburgh, a bright-eyed Alistair Darling, the Better Together leader, was equally well rested. “I slept very well indeed, thank you,” he told inquirers. “I’m feeling very confident.”

Gordon Brown, whose passionate speech against independence on the eve of polling day won many plaudits, seemed focused on the practical aspects of the day as he cast his vote. Shaking hands with no campaign supporters, as well as one yes voter, waiting for him in the mist at North Queensferry community centre in Fife, the former Labour prime minister mused: “I don’t know if the rain will stay off.”

For some, the decision had already been reached. In Glasgow, Elizabeth MacGregor, 49, was leafletting for the yes campaign outside Hillhead high school. “I’ve waited my whole life for this moment”, she said. “It’s going to happen.”

Her daughter Flora, 17 and a first-time voter, was with her: “I think that if I hadn’t done anything I’d have felt awful about it.” Flora said that her friends on Twitter and Facebook seemed to be mainly voting no: “I thought maybe I could try and sway them, or at least inform them of both sides.” Adopting the slogan on the leaflet she was offering to passersby, she added: “It’s our future in our hands, and we should take the opportunity to do it.”

In the affluent suburb of Bearsden, north of Glasgow, Claire Simpson had just voted no. “I feel the campaign has been pretty horrible, for families and for society,” she said. “I’ve got friends on the yes side and it has been difficult. It’s difficult to tell which way the vote will go, or how a yes vote will affect the community.” The healthcare worker believed that independence would be “a disaster for the NHS”.

For others, the decision had yet to be reached, even as the clock was ticking down to 10pm. Standing outside a polling station on Govan Road, on Glasgow’s south side, with their bags of shopping at their feet, Angela Colquhoun and Helen-Marie Tasker said they were “absolutely gobsmacked” because polling day has come and they had still not decided how to vote. “I’ve watched all the debates, but you get no answers”, said Colquhoun, 41, a nursing auxiliary who has concerns about currency and pensions. She intended to spend another few hours thinking, then return to vote later.

Tasker, 33, a working mother, was likewise uncertain. “It’s been going on for two years and nobody can give you a straight answer. I think David Cameron should’ve been telling us the positives of staying in the UK. I do wonder if it’s just scare stories, but there’s no going back after this.”

History was being made – in more ways than one. Among the 16- and 17-year-olds able to vote for the first time was Brandyn Murphy, 16, a student in Dundee. “When I went into the polling place I didn’t really know what to do because it was my first time voting. My girlfriend helped me. I felt it was a big responsibility but I’ve taken it seriously. I’ve listened to the debates and went to the event at the Hydro [a debate for youngsters held in Glasgow]. Once I’d voted I felt happy.”

The city was offering free taxi rides to polling stations, and opponents shared chocolate bars and coats in the drizzle, while Dundee pies were being handed out in the city centre.

In the runup to referendum day there were warnings that the atmosphere could turn spiteful in what had been billed as “yes city”, but, in the main, the mood was good humoured and positive.

Wayne O’Hare, co-owner of Dundee Taxis, was ferrying older people to the voting booths. “It’s about making sure as many people as possible get a chance to vote,” he said. One elderly passenger, Adelia Couttie, said she had been waiting for this day for 60 years.

Labour MP Jim McGovern arrived in the city centre with a plate of pies (or “pehs” as he and his supporters said they should be spelled). He was harangued by a passerby – but a yes supporter quickly came to apologise. “Sorry – he doesn’t represent us.”

Evelyn Stenhouse and Tom Dumphie, on opposite sides of the argument, shared a Twix outside the Mill of Mains polling station. They reckoned the yes voters came up the hill from the housing scheme; the no voters from the private houses on the hill. “But we all have to get on tomorrow no matter what,” said Stenhouse.

At the Glenlivit bar on Strathmartine Road, an independence day party was already in full swing. Yes voters were being charged £2 a pint, no voters £20. A sign outside read: “All English welcome except Cameron)”. Landlord Brian Nelson said the bar would shut at midnight and the party move to his house. “Then we’ll be back first thing to carry on.”

Police Scotland confirmed they had stationed officers at many polling stations because they expected a very high turnout, though there was no intelligence to suggest there would be any problems.

By early afternoon there had been one report of an arrest, with police confirming a 44-year-old man had been detained in connection with an alleged assault outside a polling station in Clydebank at 8.30am.

Graffiti reading ‘Vote Yes or else!’ was also sprayed on to the entrance wall of a church hall in Balloch, Dumbarton, but swiftly painted over.

In Glasgow’s East End, one of the key referendum battlegrounds, the SNP and Labour were reporting huge turnouts, with queues forming at many polling stations.

Scottish Labour councillor Frank Docherty, standing outside St Denis’s primary school, in Dennistoun, said that by 1pm 755 of an eligible electorate of 2,700 had voted, a figure they would not normally reach until about 5pm. The surge in voting normally came when people finished work, he said. In Craigmillar, Edinburgh, a flame-blowing piper from Las Vegas led yes supporters through a housing estate.

At a church used for polling in Gorgie, in the west of the city and close to the home ground of Hearts football club at Tynecastle – a club known for its historic Protestant associations – there were union jack stickers bearing the face of the Queen, David Bowie and Harry Potter plastered along the railings stating “your union needs you”.

The boy wizard’s creator, JK Rowling, has declared firmly for the no vote, donating £1m to the Better Together campaign. Jason Robb, a Better Together activist stationed outside the polling station, said he thought Gorgie and Dalry, its closely associated neighbouring area, were traditionally unionist.

But he believed that the pro-independence vote at the church was doing well. “There are a lot of these areas where we know we’re not going to get the majority of the vote,” Robb said.

Cathy Fullerton, the area’s Scottish National party councillor, said she was anxious but delighted by the referendum, something she had been hoping for for 30 years.

“I’ve had butterflies in my stomach ever since I got up this morning,” she said. “It’s such an occasion; words can’t describe it actually. It does bring tears to your eyes when you’re talking about it.”

After voting, Salmond began to slowly make his way southwards to Aberdeen, stopping off in the towns of Turriff and Ellon on the way. In Turriff, yes voters who were glad to see him included Bangladesh-born curry house owner, Mohammed Faruk, who said: “He’s a great man and what is happening today is because of him. I was happy to get my vote away today.”

On an estate, mother-of-two Helen Reid was as elated as a number of others coming out of their houses to pose with him for selfies: “He’s magic, god, isn’t he?

“I was up early to vote and I knew what I was going to do – freedom,” she added, prompting her saltire-waving infant granddaughter to shout the same word.”

Outside the polling station in central Lockerbie a man in a yes T-shirt played Flower of Scotland on his bagpipes – to the visible disapproval of at least half of those passing by. Hope Robertson, 22, said she was “fed up with yes campaigners ramming it in my face. I can’t wait for the morrow when it’s all over.” She was voting no, she said, because her partner’s family are farmers. A man in a tartan cap and saltire-emblazoned polo shirt said he wasn’t voting, full stop: “I’m 89 and I’ve never voted before and I’m not about to start.”

In the famous blacksmith’s shop at Gretna Green, one young couple got married, aware of the significance of their union on such a momentous day. Sarah Smith, 21 and 20-weeks pregnant, is from Annan, nine miles west of Gretna on the Scottish side. Her new husband, 32-year-old Jonathan Codona, is from Carlisle.

“It’s a big day for me and a big day for Scotland,” said Jonathan as he waited nervously for his bride’s arrival. Only Sarah has a vote: she went “no” before heading to the ceremony: “I just don’t see the point in changing something that’s done me fine all my life, and I want the same for my children.”

Jonathan’s father Brian, 71, said: “I hope the only ‘yes’ today is the one my son gave.”

Source: The Guardian

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