Amidst continuing poll predictions of a photo-finish in the September 18 Scotland referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron and other top leaders of the ‘No’ campaign crisscrossed Edinburgh, Glasgow and other towns on Wednesday, urging Scots to stay in the United Kingdom.
Appealing to the heart rather than to the head, Cameron said: “I care far more about my country than I do about my party. I care hugely about this extraordinary country, this United Kingdom that we’ve built together”.
He added in an impassioned plea: “I would be heartbroken if this family of nations that we’ve put together — and we’ve done such amazing things together — if this family of nations was torn apart.” As leaders of Labour (Ed Miliband) and Liberal Democrats (Nick Clegg) made similar pleas across Scotland, Cameron cautioned the Scots that the result of the referendum was irreversible, unlike that of an election, when voters can vote out the party in power after five years.
He said: “Because it’s a ballot, I think people can feel it’s a bit like a general election, that you make a decision and, five years later, you can make another decision, if you’re fed up with the effing Tories, give them a kick and maybe we’ll think again. This is totally different to a general election. This is a decision about not the next five years, it’s a decision about the next century.” Intractable questions that an independent Scotland would face continued to be hotly debated: membership of the European Union, using pound as the currency (the Bank of England governor has discounted such a possibility), international borders, sharing of UK’s military assets, immigration and the National Health Service.