BBC Online :
Both sides in the Scottish referendum debate are making their final pitch to voters on the last day of campaigning.
It comes as the latest polls suggested the result remained too close to call, with a slender lead for a “No” vote.
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has written to voters appealing to them to vote “Yes”, saying “let’s do this”.
Key figures from the pro-Union Better Together campaign were out meeting nightworkers into Wednesday, ahead of a Love Scotland, Vote No rally.
Three new polls, one by Opinium for the Daily Telegraph, another by ICM for the Scotsman and a third by Survation for the Daily Mail, were published on Tuesday evening.
With undecided voters excluded, they all suggested a lead for “No” of 52% to 48%.
On the final day of campaigning, in a letter to the people of Scotland, Salmond told them they will hold power in their hands as they vote to determine their country’s future on Thursday.
He asked voters to step back from the political arguments and statistics that have defined the two-year campaign and trust in themselves as they go into the polling booth.
Salmond said: “The talking is nearly done. The campaigns will have had their say. What’s left is just us – the people who live and work here. The only people with a vote. The people who matter.
“The people who for a few precious hours during polling day hold sovereignty, power, authority in their hands. It’s the greatest most empowering moment any of us will ever have. Scotland’s future – our country in our hands.
“What to do? Only each of us knows that. For my part, I ask only this. Make this decision with a clear head and a clear conscience.”
The first minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the referendum campaign had been one of the most exhilarating in Western Europe, and said he was “assuming absolutely nothing” about the result.
Watching people queuing to register to vote had been a “humbling” sight, he added, and pledged to honour Clause 30 of the Edinburgh agreement by which both sides agreed to honour the result and work in the best interests of Scotland and the UK regardless of the result.
On Spain’s potential opposition to Scotland’s membership of the EU, the first minister said Scotland had 1% of the EU’s population, but 20% of its fish stocks, 25% of its renewable energy and 60% of its oil resources.
He argued that anybody who believed the country would not be welcome in the EU did not understand that Europe “accepts democratic results” and that Scotland “has a huge amount to contribute”.
Better Together leader Alistair Darling and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown will front a Love Scotland, Vote No rally in Glasgow later.
