Quite naively I suppose, when the referendum was announced I never thought it would get so close to polling day with so many major issues completely unresolved. I expected there would be some final horse trading to be done, a difference of opinion of £10b or so on how much of the national debt Scotland would take, exactly how the armed forces would be shared out, lots of minor details etc

It just never occurred to me that they wouldn't know the currency would be, that Scotland would be threatening to renege on the national debt, that EU membership would be unsure, that no one would have a clue on what basis the 2015 general election would take pace or even if it would take place.

Apparently No. 10 have precisely ZERO policies in place, should the vote be YES.

Friday morning could well be a "shit, what do we do now" day

Is that different to a normal day?

By his Party probably and the Conservatives will get trounced in the next election IMO.

Anybody who thinks a YES vote will lead to some kind of friendly break up of the Union is deluded IMO. It's going to get pretty ugly and it appears it's already starting with NO campaigners being intimidated by hardcore Nationalists. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ed-debate.html Anyway I'm predicting financial turmoil if there's a YES vote and will be running down to the nearest cash point

Anybody who thinks a YES vote will lead to some kind of friendly break up of the Union is deluded IMO. It's going to get pretty ugly and it appears it's already starting with NO campaigners being intimidated by hardcore Nationalists. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ed-debate.html Anyway I'm predicting financial turmoil if there's a YES vote and will be running down to the nearest cash point

As voters approach polling day I do hope some of the Yes side will look over the cliff edge and see the economic shambles that awaits them and then decide after all not to jump. The so called undecided voters have kept a low profile perhaps because there has been so much intimidation from many of Salmond's more unruly element therefore I think they are are more likely to vote NO. In which case they could swing it for the No thanks campaign.

However it still looks like going down to the wire with a very high turnout expected. No matter which way the vote goes on Thursday Salmond has successfully split the people of Scotland into two factions and there is a lot of venom and bad feeling and there will be around 40% of the population very unhappy on Friday.

If the No vote wins the day there is all the late 'Devo-Max' promises to be funded and put in place. This will have a huge knock on effect for Wales, Northern Ireland and most importantly England where pressure will come for equal treatment.

If the Yes votes wins then there will be a long long period of difficult negotiations bringing uncertainty which could harm our economic recovery. The mandate that Salmond keeps talking about if he wins in fact only gives Scotland the right to negotiate and the rest of the UK will be in the driving seat. Salmond's big weapon was the threat of independence and ironically if he wins the vote he will lose the threat. He cannot force the rest of the UK to accept his terms.

I hope whichever side wins it is by more than just a few percent. It will need a 60/40 size of win for the losers to accept it without too much acrimony.

If I understand correctly the count has checks built in to prevent the need for recounts, as there is only two choices the count if fairly easy.



What you going to predict next, Friday follows Thursday?



No they haven't.

The rag tag and bobtail that make up the SNP will all go back to their natural parties, the majority of the SNP's policies have been left wing to attract the Labour followers and members, after the vote no matter what the result the SNP will have to balance the books losing the left wing support.

Head onto any of the Yes chatrooms, they think they are going to set up a cold water Cuba!

Apparently each side can ask for a recount at the 32 counting centres, but not a total recount.

What I don't know is how long they have to request a recount. Hypothetically it could be that there is a clear result one way or the other at each counting centre but when totals are added up there's only one vote in it. Could each side hold back on requesting a recount for a few hours to see how its going and then when the last counting centre declares, request recounts everywhere, or at least at the main centres such as Glasgow?