A fresh start

With 97% of eligible adults now registered and turnout expected to be between 80-90%, September 18th will mark the first time in history that the will of the Scottish people has been truly heard.

300 odd years ago, we were "bought and sold for English gold"; next week, we, collectively, decide whether to be governed by the union or whether to become independent.

Creating an independent Scotland would be a message to the world: we are fed up of the current political system. We demand accountability, democracy, equality, justice, redistribution of wealth. The government in an independent Scotland would always have to be accountable and democratic: it would answer to its people, the people who created it.

Conversely, a no vote is a weak acceptance of the status quo. It says: we're okay with this. We're okay with the private school elite, okay with unelected clerics in the legislature, okay with power in the hands of the 1%, okay with illegal wars and an aggressive foreign policy, okay with nuclear weapons, okay with rising child poverty.

The sort of political apathy that sees 66% of voters pick their cuddy in Westminster's two-horse race has been washed away with the referendum debate. The millions of apathetic or young voters who come out to vote for the first time next Thursday can be encouraged to keep a stake in politics, if we all get out to the polling station and grab ourselves something worth voting for. Not the same old, same old, but a new country. A fresh start.