- Title: UK: Scottish 'No' campaigners rally for final push for the undecided voters
- Date: 17th September 2014
- Summary: GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 17, 2014) (REUTERS) CAR WITH 'YES' POSTER IN FRONT OF 'NO' RALLY VENUE VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF RALLY VENUE / 'NO' SUPPORTERS WITH POSTERS SAYING (English): "Love Scotland. Vote 'No'" LEADER OF THE 'NO' CAMPAIGN, FORMER BRITISH FINANCE MINISTER, ALISTAIR DARLING, BEING PIPED INTO THE EVENT SUPPORTERS WAVE 'NO' BANNERS (SOUNDBITE)
- Embargoed: 2nd October 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA847HAI1AB3X9H0GGYSK0DHJ4E
- Story Text: The leaders of Scotland's campaign against independence gathered in Glasgow to make an eve-of-poll plea on Wednesday (September 17) to keep the United Kingdom together.
Campaign chief, former British finance minister Alistair Darling, was flanked at a rally in Glasgow by the former prime minister Gordon Brown, who, in an impassioned speech, urged the Scots to not let nationalists "split asunder ... what we have built together" in the UK.
With opinion polls showing support for staying in the UK marginally stronger than backing for independence, Darling and Brown took to the stage to urge the tens of thousands of undecided voters to say 'No'.
"A vote to say 'No' is a vote to keep the currency. A vote to say 'No' is to safeguard the payment of pensions. A vote to say 'No' is to guarantee the funding and the strength of our National Health Service," Darling said.
The leaders were joined on stage by young voters, among them trainee oral surgeon Vicky Gregg, who said she and her family had benefited from life-saving treatment from the British tax-funded National Health Service.
The 'No' campaign says funding for the NHS or its replacement would drop in an independent Scotland.
"I'm voting 'No' for a better Scotland and I'm voting 'No' to save our NHS," Gregg said.
"I'll be voting 'No' because putting up boundaries and barriers makes no sense when we spend the rest of lives pulling them down," 16-year-old first time voter Riwa Sood told the rally.
British political leaders have promised greater autonomy for Scotland if people decide to stay in the union and to safeguard a favourable funding formula for public services, a deal brokered by Brown, who appealed to Scots to say 'No'.
"Common defence, common currency, common and shared rights from the UK pension to the UK minimum wage. From each according to his ability to contribute to each according to his needs and that is the best principle that can govern the life of our country today," Brown said.
"We built the peace together, we built the health service together, we built the welfare state together, we will build the future together. And what we have built together, by sacrificing and sharing, let no narrow nationalism split asunder, ever," Brown added.
Three surveys published on Wednesday - from pollsters ICM, Opinium and Survation - showed support for independence at 48 percent compared with 52 percent backing for the union. They found 8 to 14 percent of Scotland's 4.3 million voters were still undecided before polls open at 0500 London time (0400GMT) on Thursday.
If Scots vote for independence, Britain and Scotland would face lengthy negotiations over everything from sharing North Sea oil tax revenue and a future currency to European Union membership and Britain's main nuclear submarine base which Salmond's Scottish National Party wants out of the country.
The prospect of breaking up the United Kingdom, the world's sixth-largest economy and a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has prompted citizens and allies alike to ponder what would be left. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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