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Just 33 hours to go now to Thursday's referendum - Britain only ever votes on Thursdays. You'll have read / watched the arguments ad nauseam - or not, in which case you won't be reading this - so I won't rehash them. And I won't repeat posts in the two earlier blogs: http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/blog/504/entry-14328-scotland-nearer-to-independence/ http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/blog/504/entry-13245-scottish-independence/ What's emerged in the final weeks of campaigning is the unmatched presentational and political skills of Alex Salmond heading the Yes campaign and the feeble incompetence of the No campaign. Only in the final two weeks has the No campaign had an effective and credible presenter: ex Labour Prime Minister and former Chancellor Gordon Brown. It doesn't matter what rational arguments have been made against independence, or who has made them - including dire warnings from European banks and CEOs of big finance and oil - Salmond has simply deflected them as "bullying" of the little guy, Scotland, by the big bad guy, England. No matter the strength of the arguments against leaving the Union the gap has been closing to the point where a Yes vote is now very likely. Show stoppers like Scottish banknotes have been overlooked. Here's one: vote Yes, Mr and Mrs Tartan Haggis, and you kiss goodbye to this Because the Scots do love their Scottish banknotes. So why has no-one told them they'll cease to exist without currency union? [well, Scots may still have them but they won't have Sterling value]. All three main UK political parties have vetoed sharing the Pound and the politically neutral Canadian Governor of The Bank of England, Mark Carney, has stated currency union will be impossible with an independent Scotland. Whatever happens on Thursday the UK as we know it will never be the same. Even if the vote is No, we will inevitably move to a more federalist model with - shudder - perhaps even a written constitution. The fact is the Union merged five distinct nations into a single State, but centralised unitary government from London - the fifth nation - is no longer sustainable.