British Prime Minister David Cameron was to make one of his final visits to Scotland yesterday, four days before a historic independence referendum to warn Scots a vote to leave the UK is a “forever choice.”
With opinion polls suggesting the referendum remains too close to call, Cameron, the leader of the England-centric ruling Conservative Party, is expected to try to appeal to Scots’ emotions by likening the four-nation UK to a family.
“There’s no going back from this. No re-run. If Scotland votes ‘yes’ the UK will split and we will go our separate ways forever,” he is expected to say, according to advance extracts given to local media by his office.
Photo: AFP
Cameron is likely to repeat the anti-independence “Better Together” campaign’s core message: That inside the UK Scotland can have the benefits of belonging to a larger more influential entity while enjoying an ever increasing measure of autonomy.
The celebrity group, “Let’s Stay Together” was organizing a public rally for yesterday evening in London’s Trafalgar Square to appeal to Scots not to break up the UK.
On Sunday, thousands of independence supporters took to the streets of Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, while some of the biggest names in Scottish rock took to the stage in Edinburgh on Sunday urging people to vote for independence.
Photo: AFP
Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai and Frightened Rabbit sold out Edinburgh’s almost 3,000 capacity Usher Hall for A Night For Scotland.
“People are excited. The ‘Yes’ camp I feel are more invigorated, but I’m personally terrified of being complacent,” Calum Forbes, a 22-year-old recent graduate and “Yes” supporter, said beforehand
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II reportedly made her first comment on the referendum.
British media said the 88-year-old monarch told an onlooker after attending church near her Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highlands on Sunday: “Well, I hope people will think very carefully about the future.”
Opinion polls suggest the outcome of Thursday’s referendum will be extremely close.
An Opinium survey for Sunday’s Observer put the “No” camp at 47.7 percent and “Yes” at 42.3 percent, with 10 percent not voting or not sure if they would.
A poll by Panelbase for the Sunday Times, with the undecideds taken out, gave “No” the slimmest of margins with 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent.
An ICM online poll for the Sunday Telegraph, meanwhile, gave the nationalists 49 percent, ahead of the pro-UK camp at 42 percent with 9 percent undecided, although pollsters said that the sample size could be too small to be representative.
“The polls show that the referendum is on a knife-edge. There is everything to play for,” said Blair Jenkins, chief executive of the “Yes Scotland” campaign.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese