[Ann Drysdale]

On the train from Kings Cross to Leuchars someone came pushing a refreshment trolley, demanding a ridiculous sum in return for a bottle of water. "Ah," I remarked to my companion, "had we but charged like that at Bannockburn..."

[Brian Allgar]

You may be right, John. But I note that the bookmakers seem to be offering 1/8 for a NO, and 9/2 for a YES. I know nothing about betting, nor indeed Scottish history, but that sounds to me more like Culloden than Bannockburn ...

[John Whitworth]

I don't think the Scots would have got very good odds at Bannockburn. They were outnumbered 4 to 1.

Culloden was a battle between Catholic Highlanders and Calvinist Lowlanders. Nothing to do with England at all really. The Catholics bit the dust and Calvinism ruled. It was still ruling in the 1950s when I lived there.

[Nigel Mace]

Don't listen to the bookies, Brian. The battle comparisons are all wide of the mark for this is an all Scotland affair. It looks like a possible 80% poll and the tide of YES is rising steadily especially in the cities and the Central Belt. This is going to happen. If you can get ITV player or STV on satellite the first big debate - Salmond v. Darling is on tonight and that's going to do 'No' no favours. In literary terms Darling's friend J K Rowling may be bank rolling 'No' - but YES have Edwin Morgan's legacy and the best of contemporary Scottish novelists, including the peerless James Robertson. There are more than 340 separate grass-roots YES groups, all local and self-started all over the country - and on the other side there is 'astroturf'. There are also around 50 sectional YES groups from Academics for YES to Women for Independence, from Fishing for YES to Poles for YES and many others you couldn't even imagine - and funny ones too, my favourite being Dugs for YES. All the registered YES campaign organisations are based here; 88% of the 'No' campaign ones are based outside Scotland. We are awash with volunteers; they, it seems, have been paying helpers, some even shipped in from constituency Labour parties from the south. And in literary terms (and of all levels of talent, including great to very little) - the writers, playwrights, poets, actors etc are overwhelmingly lined up with YES. The Festival is threaded through with referendum plays and revues and they, like the thousands of public meetings have been, will be thronged. Though the press, apart from the Sunday Herald, is entirely 'No', like the BBC (which has become the focus of mass protests outside its Glasgow studios) the best journalistic writers MacWhirter, Bell and Ascherson have all come out for YES - as has Judy Steel. It is a movement worthy of the scale of the issue. So - just think a reversal of the nobs versus the mobs of Edinburgh in 1707 - and this time even the dowager Duchess of Hamilton is on the side of Scotland's independence.

[Brian Allgar]

That sounds pretty convincing, Nigel. I must confess that I have no strong feelings either way about the outcome. My only concern is: if Scotland becomes independent, will the price of malt whisky skyrocket?

[Adrian Fry]

Nigel, your enthusiasm reminds me of the enthusiasm wasted on Neil Kinnock's Labour Party in the 1980s and 90s. All the academics, teachers, actors, writers and community activists were on 'our' side. The other side invariably won.

[John Whitworth]

Academics, teachers, actors, writers, community activists... Yup those are the people who truly know. However, I trust Nigel has punted his all. At 8 to 1 he'll make a bloody fortune. Go it, Nigel.

[Nigel Mace]

I'm not a betting man, John - and in any case it seems somehow demeaning to reduce so great a matter to that level. I only went on about the 'creatives', Adrian, because of this site's interests; I've even written the odd poem on the theme myself. There's plenty of business, manufacturing, commerce, natural resources (especially renewable electricity {we currently do 46% of that}, oil and gas) people - even the odd banker (shudder) - on our side as well. Check out www.businessforscotland.co.uk to see how solid that is - oh, and talking of 'odds', the chairman of William Hill has also joined our ranks just today. Figure that? As to the serious question of malt prices, Brian.... you probably already pay less for it in France than we do here. I wouldn't worry, we'll want the consumption to go on rising. Slainte!

[Nicholas Stone]

I can't say I'd be very happy about independence, Nigel, but if you do get it then I'll send you a great big thank you (in verse) for preserving England from the Millipede.

[Nigel Mace]

I'll look forward to that Nicholas - the poem I mean. Unfortunately you flatter us. Scottish MPs have made the difference to only two General Elections since 1945 (both only for short term governments) - and that is the real root of the problem. It doesn't matter who we vote for - or almost never - and we are now, certainly since 1999, a completely different polity, heading, under four different administrations, in the diametrically opposite direction to the UK south of the Border - and we want to go on doing so across all areas of policy. That is really why, just for plain democratic health, this has to come. I've not posted poems on the subject here, among other reasons which have kept me off this site for six months, mainly because it seems to be seen merely as a vehicle for pastiche at best and ribaldry at worst. There has, of course, been some splendid comic - if pointed - writing inspired by it. Try James Robertson's "The News Where You Are" in his series of 365 word stories. It's on You Tube from a kirk meeting in Elgin and gently delightful, both as text and delivery.