Personal Blogs

Well for a start Salmond. He has already won big whatever happens. If it's an aye then his place in history is secure: the man who delivered what I think most of us had assumed was impossible.

To even get this close is something of a personal triumph for him. Almost single-handedly he has led the SNP into power, used that power well enough to show us what-might-be if we had more power and has campaigned in a way which felt positive while still managing to get in some very low personal-blows at the nays.  

I'm no great fan of fat 'eck, as I've said before he has the touch of the scunner about him. It would come as no surprise to me if he had quite a few skeletons lurking in his closet. If fact looking at him, if he had more one skeleton lurking inside his body that would be no surprise either. But there can be no doubt, without him we wouldn't be here. 

You only have to look at the pictures to see which flavour of politicians are enjoying themselves.

Then there's the people of Scotland. I'm not sure if I can get across just how exciting it is to be here in Scotland at this moment. The world's press are arriving in their droves, we feel that we are on the cusp of history and that the world is watching us. For a small nation of little importance that's very flattering. 

So what are we, the denizens, doing? We're talking, incessantly, to each other about almost nothing else. Hundreds of thousands of people who weren't on the electoral roll have registered to vote. We're expecting an 80%+ turnout.

Whatever happens there is a real sense of importance about what we [and we do feel that we are a we] are about to decide. At no other time in my life has there been such an interest in a political event. And perhaps most importantly, there is a sense that what we think, as voters, can make a real difference.

Which leads me to my last big winners, everyone here on these isles. Aye or nae the political landscape has been changed.

Whatever your political leanings you must admit that you feel that an out-of-touch political elite are running this country in the interests of rich corporations and super wealthy. You also feel that there isn't really much you can personally do to change anything. We've been in wrong lizard territory for too long here.

The political class feel secure; they have control of the agenda, they have the media in their pockets and as long as they keep the interests of their backers in mind, they have enough money to squash any opposition.

Didn't work this time.

Yes didn't have a chance, everything was against us. Still here we are now.

Enthusiastic people on the ground, a measured campaign and a sense that we could change the world have turned all that around. People here have long since stopped listening to the bankers, the politicians, the billionaires, the media... We'd stopped trusting them long ago but we didn't think that we could do anything about them. The realization that we could, and might, be able to change something for real has been a huge thing. 

As soon as we stopped listening to the settled-fonts-of-opinon and started talking to ourselves about politics, anything seemed possible. That genie isn't going back in the bottle.

The panicked response to one yes-lead-poll showed how rattled they [the man ] are. Those with power and riches never assumed that people might vote in a way that might interfere with the way that they want the world to be. They've been badly frightened. The whole process has been worth it for that alone.

The result? It'll be a no. Us yessers are telling ourselves, "one last push". Indeed that was the exact form of words that three of us used at work today. Won't happen. There are too many people out there like my mum, "my heart says yes, do it for Scotland, but..." The missing bit is that her head says no, and we know which rules when we come to vote.

We, the yessers, know that we are probably going to lose but even getting so close is a victory of a kind. This has made things different. This isn't getting rid of the, "effing Tories" for another set of, "effing Tories". This about us telling them that you no longer own, or can buy, us, the voters.

Lots of people have won here before we even have the poll.

Still let me win, God know's it would be the first time...

Edited to add this link and quote:

Everything that has been written pronouncing the death of popular politics in this country has just been proved wrong.”

Prof Matthew Flinders Sheffield University

Edited to add this link and quote:

It is impossible to have visited Scotland in recent days and not to have been exhilarated by the sheer vigour of democratic engagement.