Alex Salmond: ‘10 Days of hard work’ for Yes vote

Alex Salmond said the Yes campaign will be “hoisting a Saltire a week on Thursday” if it keeps converting people to the independence cause.

Voters in Scotland will be asked the “Yes/No” question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” when they go to the polls on Thursday, September 18.

Mr Salmond spoke to STV’s Scotland Tonight after a weekend YouGov poll put support for independence ahead for the first time, with 51% supporting Scotland leaving the UK, compared to 49% who want to remain in the UK.

He told the programme: “What encourages me is not just that the polls are showing an increase. What encourages me is what I’m finding in the streets, communities going around Scotland, where people aren’t just moving towards Yes from don’t know, incidentally, they’re moving towards Yes (when they) previously were against but were looking for a reason to be convinced, I think very successfully.

“Whatever the polls exactly say, the Yes campaign are doing that and what we have to do is to keep doing it because we have got 10 days to go. So it’s 10 days of hard work to win this for Scotland.”

Mr Salmond insisted next week’s vote is not a judgment on the SNP, nor on him as First Minister.

“This is about people’s belief in our country, whether we have the ability to run our country more successfully and more fairly than the Westminster parties,” he said.

“I think all of the evidence and all of people’s experience is convincing more and more people that we have the ability to do just that.”

Mr Salmond added: “We’re going to win this referendum for Scotland.

“If the people of Scotland react as they have over the last few weeks through the wonderful enthusiasm of the broadly-based Yes campaign, if we work hard to convert more and more of our fellow citizens to that opportunity, then we’ll be hoisting a Saltire a week on Thursday.”

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