There was an unmistakable air of excitement and energy in the small Yes campaign headquarters on St Andrews Street, Dundee, this morning as polling got under way in Scotland’s historic referendum.
Such was the number of volunteers descending on the “pop-up office” in the rather shabby building, that organisers at times had more willing bodies available than jobs to carry out.
“It’s going like a fair,” said Stewart Hosie, Scottish National Party MP for Dundee. “People have been in since 6 o’clock this morning. This will carry on until ten o’clock tonight, getting out the vote, and we are incredibly confident we are going to win.”
Four hundred volunteers were scheduled to turn up over the course of the morning, with the small centre working to send them out on tasks that would help maximise the vote for Scottish independence. The city has an electorate of more than 100,000 and is one of the urban centres where the Yes vote will have to win by an impressive majority if the national vote in favour of independence is going to top 50 per cent.
The blue and white Saltire was a common sight on cars and buses around the city. This reporter saw no vehicle displaying No campaign or Better Together advertisements. "We are anticipating a turnout of in excess of 80 per cent," said Hosie. "That's way in excess of any election anyone can ever remember."
He said the referendum poll was unlike anything he had ever experienced. “People from all parties and none coming together with common cause, this has been invigorating for the whole of Scottish politics and quite the most remarkable thing many, many people have ever been involved in.”
Most of the workers in the No campaign offices, in an old commercial building, Dunsinane House, in an industrial estate ten minutes' drive from the city centre, said they were too busy to talk to the press. A number of cars came and went while The Irish Times was there, but the same sense of collective excitement did not exist.
However Michael Marra, chief strategist for the Better Together campaign in all of Scotland, said that while there was undoubtedly a different tenor in the Yes and No campaigns, it would be a mistake to underestimate the commitment of those campaigning to save the Union. He said he was confident that there was a "quiet majority" in favour of staying in the union and that today's vote would show that.
Marra is based in the Glasgow headquarters of the Better Together campaign but was back in his native Dundee for a vote. At polling stations visited by The Irish Times there was always at least one campaigner urging people to vote Yes, while activists urging people to vote No were more of a rarity. Both views on independence were represented amongst the voters who spoke to this reporter after coming out of the polling station at the Glebelands Primary School, on Baffin Street.
Donna Harper said she voted Yes. ”It’s not a nationalist thing, but I think we govern our own country better than anyone else can.”
Amanda Lowe voted No because she believed that it was better for Scotland to stay with the rest of the UK, for reasons to do with economics and national security. “There were just too many unanswered questions to vote Yes,” she said. The polling stations close at 10pm and a result for the Dundee electorate is expected two or three hours after midnight.-
