Rolling coverage throughout the day as Scotland votes to decide whether to stay part of the United Kingdom
Andy Murray: Lets do this!
Are the Scots independent yet?
Share your photos and stories via GuardianWitness
11.39am BST
My colleague Esther Addley is on the island of Unst, at Scotlands most northerly polling station:
Have counted at least 5 union jacks on main road in Unst, some w/ Shetland flag. No saltires yet #indyref #shetland
Brief pause at Unst's famous bus stop, decorated in tribute to Mandela with comfy chair, small library #shetland
11.31am BST
A reminder, as the votes are counted tonight, to keep up to date with the key question: Are the Scots independent yet?
11.25am BST
The Guardians Scotland reporter, Libby Brooks, is in Govan, Glasgow, hanging out with voters:
Standing outside the polling station with their bags of shopping at their feet, Angela Colquhoun and Helen-Marie Tasker say they are absolutely gobsmacked because polling day has come and they have still not decided how to vote.
Ive watched all the debates but you get no answers, says Colquhoun, 41, a nursing auxiliary. She raises concerns about currency and pensions. One of the upsides of being independent is the oil money, but that wont last forever.
Tasker, 33, a working mother, is likewise uncertain. Its been going on for two years and nobody can give you a straight answer. I think David Cameron shouldve been telling us the positives of staying in the UK. I do wonder if its just scare stories, but theres no going back after this.
Colquhoun says shell spend another few hours thinking about it and come back to vote later. People are scared about whats going to happen. They might vote no to stick with the known, but thats not a good enough reason.
11.14am BST
The campaign has been fought just as much across social media as it has been with placards and meetings. And its a campaign that the yes supporters seem to have clinched.
SimilarWeb, which monitors web trends, spots that YesScotland has been attracting double the traffic heading to BetterTogether, the lead no campaign site:
The campaign for an independent Scotland currently has more than twice the number of followers (95,600) as its opponent Better Together (41,200). Yes Scotland also has 307,960 Facebook likes to Better Togethers 210,335.
To put this in perspective though, the two campaigns combined would only make up 1.7% of the 8m plus follower base of Russell Brand, who has recently weighed into the debate himself.
11.10am BST
Our political editor Patrick Wintour is reporting signs of a backlash against prime minister David Cameron - regardless of the result of the referendum. He writes:
Claire Perry, the rail minister, has become the first Conservative front bencher to join the growing rebellion over promises to give Scotland more powers regardless of todays referendum result by warning against promises of financial party bags.
She attacked the pledge made by the three main parties to maintain the current level of funding for Scotland and devolve local tax raising powers as hardly hardly equitable to the situation in England.
11.09am BST
Scottish Green party co-convenor and a lead Yes campaigner Patrick Harvie is still waiting to cast his vote. He doesnt seem too downhearted about having to stand in line:
I'm queuing to vote. *Queuing*!
10.53am BST
Alistair Darling, former UK chancellor and leader of the Better Together campaign, has cast his vote in Edinburgh:
10.50am BST
Readers have been enthusiastically taking up the GuardianWitness assignment to map the mood of Scottish voters today.
A reader who goes by the name of silentglow undaunted by the communications problems that have hampered our own reporter on the northerly Shetland island of Unst sends us this snap of divided neighbourly opinions:
Even in Scotland's remote reaches of Unst, in the Shetland Islands, opinion is divided although the Shetland flag often waves in place of a Scottish flag
Sent via GuardianWitness
By silentglow
18 September 2014, 9:20
10.45am BST
Esther Addley is outside North Unst public hall, the northernmost polling station in Scotland. It took her a while to get there, there is hardly anyone to be seen, the scenery is bleak and beautiful, but the comms means its hard to send pictures. She tells us this:
To reach the island of Unst from Shetlands capital Lerwick, you drive north, passing the huge oil refinery of Sullom Voe, then take a short ferry crossing to Yell and, having crossed that island, on to the most northerly inhabited island in what is still, for now, the United Kingdom.
Unsts scenery is spectacular huge, open moorland valleys and rugged coastline, with scattered small settlements and farms. It is grey and drizzly here today, and islanders are wrapped in sensible macs as they head out to vote.
10.39am BST
This gallery of todays newspaper front pages rightly concentrates on the day of reckoning; its worth remembering that almost all the Scottish and UK press have urged their readers to vote no today. Roy Greenslade has been casting an eye over what he calls the English newspapers dramatic front pages.
The Herald carries a cheekily-placed front-page advert upon closer inspection, that big blue no isnt really anything to do with the referendum:
Today's front page: Day of destiny. Live #indyref coverage as Scotland decides pic.twitter.com/8cssWtbAwD http://t.co/XYrSmTatmK
10.37am BST
The Guardians Scotland correspondent Severin Carrell is touring polling stations this morning and finds Yes and No supporters enjoying the moment:
#Stenhouse, #no & #yes folk Jackie, Vanessa & Chris laugh and #banter "it's democracy, there's no need for nastiness" pic.twitter.com/SBAeG77bRC
In Gorgie/Dalry, next to Protestant club #Hearts, polling place has pro-union David Bowie / Queen stickers on railing pic.twitter.com/mfV20Z6ya0
10.31am BST
Libby Brooks is at Kelvinbridge polling station in Glasgow and has been talking to first-time voter Flora McGuigan, 17:
10.24am BST
My colleagues in the Guardian video team have stitched together this round-up of the mornings voting highlights so far:
10.11am BST
Ewen MacAskill, who has been following pro-independence Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond through the campaign for us, has written this very brilliant reflection on the referendum debate so far.
The Scottish National Party lifted much of Barack Obamas election playbook for the referendum campaign. Watching the final rally in Perth on Wednesday night was like a scaled-down version of the early Obama ones.
The most striking comparison was when the hundreds in the Perth hall began chanting Yes We Can, the slogan chanted the length and breadth of America during Obamas campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Another is the little blue and white yes cards distributed to the crowd to wave at key points in the speech.
9.56am BST
Steven Morris has been talking to voters at the Mill of Mains primary school polling station in Dundee:
9.50am BST
Ben Quinn was with first minister Alex Salmond as he cast his vote this morning; you can catch his Vine of that here. Ben writes:
Alex Salmond cast his vote in his home village of Strichen this morning before coming out of the polling station to declare that tennis player Andy Murray had hit another winner this morning.
The comments appear to be a reference to a tweet made by Murray late last night in which he said: Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!
9.38am BST
Gordon Brown the man who, according to some elements of the press this morning, might have single-handedly saved the union with a speech yesterday has cast his vote. Not sure what hes indicating in this picture: perhaps what he thinks will be the gap between yes and no votes
9.30am BST
Im seeing some fantastic pictures of Scottish voters at polling stations this morning, including, cheeringly, young voters this is the first vote in which 16- and 17-year-olds are eligible to have their say. Here are some of the best:
9.17am BST
My colleague Ben Quinn is in Strichen, where first minister Alex Salmond has just cast his vote for yes, accompanied by two first-time voters: Natasha McDonald and Lia Pirie.
9.15am BST
Voting goes on until 10pm BST tonight, though anyone still in the polling station queue at that cut-off time will get the chance to put their cross on the ballot paper.
Counting starts immediately after that, with the first results expected around 2am, with Eilean Siar, North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Orkney, East Lothian, Perth and Kinross, and Moray vying to be the first local authority to declare.
9.08am BST
Our reporters out and about in the drizzle at polling stations across Scotland say voters are turning out in good numbers and good humour:
Twins Les & Simon Hodge at #Fountainbridge for @YesScotland "our job is to stand here and be friendly" #indyref pic.twitter.com/9kw0da6CK3
Love this sign outside an Edinburgh church doubling as a polling booth today. pic.twitter.com/xoq2Y6XksX
9.05am BST
My colleague Aisha Gani has put together this compilation of 11 10 is so last-election highlights of the referendum campaign. Sky News presenter Kay Burley calling a yes supporter a bit of a knob is in there, naturally. Did you miss it? Here it is again:
8.54am BST
Jamie Murray, tennis-playing brother of Andy (who earlier tweeted his own, slightly enigmatic, support for a yes vote), has tweeted his own, rather more explicit, views on todays vote:
Love UK..love the Royals..but it's time for Scotland to stand on its own 2 feet and control their own destiny.
Scotland is full of smart talented hard working humble people. Have faith in them to run our country successfully.
8.40am BST
My colleague Steven Morris is hanging out with voters in Dundee and sends this dispatch:
Tom Dumphie, 59, was first in the queue at the Mill of Mains primary school polling station in Dundee. I was surprised there were five or six in the line by the time I voted. This is going to be important not just for us but our kids and grandkids. But the atmosphere is friendly. I dont think therell be tensions here.
8.35am BST
A reader by the name of clearwood sends this contribution via GuardianWitness of yesterdays final Yes rally in Glasgow:
What a delightful atmosphere, peace and love all round! Lots of children too. People are so positive about Scotland's future in the yes crowd. They played "the times they are achanging" and it just sounded true!
Sent via GuardianWitness
By clearwood
18 September 2014, 8:13
8.24am BST
Weve been hearing from our readers, via GuardianWitness, about the #indyref atmosphere where they are, from Kirkwall in the far north to Dumfries and Galloway in south west Scotland.
Take a look at the map of readers contributions so far; you can use the tool to zoom into different places. The largest clusters are in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but voters from there or elsewhere can still participate today by going to GuardianWitness.
8.17am BST
Jackie Bailey, MSP for Dumbarton, tweets this picture from a local polling station:
Shocking behaviour from yes campaigners. Should not be trying to threaten and intimidate #voteno #indyref pic.twitter.com/L7zhP5rDFc
8.10am BST
Rupert Murdoch whose Scottish Sun newspaper declined to back either camp has weighed in on Twitter this morning:
Scotland now voting. Nobody can be sure of outcome, but Yes organisation likely to make it very close. Either way, UK changes forever.
8.04am BST
The polling stations are busy already with 97% of the eligible electorate registered to vote today, and turnout expected to be way above 80%, theres a lot of voters to get through those booths.
#LetsDoThis! @NicolaSturgeon and John Mason MSP cast their #Yes votes in Glasgow #indyref pic.twitter.com/KeCW8ENs12
Just voted #No for Scotland and the UK. My polling station the busiest I've ever seen it at 7.30am. Our precious democracy.
Central #Glasgow polling station @ 6.50am: Ivan thinks 'yes' has momentum & David is hopeful for quiet 'no's #indyref pic.twitter.com/tEQKtMaUJt
Incredible queues at the Polling station at 7am. I doubt I'll ever see the likes again. #ivotedyes
7.51am BST
My colleague Helen Pidd is in Ecclefechan, in the south of Scotland, talking to early voters on their way to the polling station:
The polling station at Ecclefechan community centre in Dumfries and Galloway was doing brisk business from the off. The first voter, a man in his 60s, looked ecstatic, refusing to give his name but saying simply: This is history in the making Ill no see the benefit of it, mind.
Factory worker Scott Stewart, 24, followed. On his way in, he said he was a yes: I think we will be better off on our own. But for those who are hoping that apathy has died in Scotland with the referendum, Stewart added: This is the first time Ive ever voted and it will be the last. I dont understand politics.
Scott Stewart, 24, a yes: "This is the 1st time I've voted & it will be the last." Apathy won't die with independence pic.twitter.com/A214rqz03M
7.41am BST
Theres a full list further down this liveblog (see here) of the Guardians #indyref team if you want to track them through the day, and night, on Twitter, you can follow them via this handy list.
7.36am BST
It wouldnt be polling day without a weather report. Press Association files this:
Scotland will have start off largely dry in many places, although rain is expected to push into western Scotland during the day, but it is expected to remain mostly dry to the east with some hazy sunny spells.
Good morning, Edinburgh #indyref pic.twitter.com/2rviCXPWNH
7.33am BST
Voters are already queuing at polling stations, which opened at 7am:
Nicola Sturgeon deputy first minister arrives to vote in Glasgow. pic.twitter.com/Aed1Z7UpIV
7.18am BST
Overnight, it looks as if one of Scotlands biggest stars has in a slightly roundabout way endorsed yes. Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, who does not live in Scotland and thus does not have a vote, tweeted this as the clock ticked into polling day:
Huge day for Scotland today! no campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. excited to see the outcome. lets do this!
Murray had previously been careful not to publicly back either side of the independence debate because of the grief he suffered following earlier forays into the world of politics. In March this year he said: I will take a position. My thoughts on it arent that relevant, because I cant vote myself.
But he has confirmed that he would play tennis for an independent Scotland.
7.10am BST
Theres been no shortage of words/pictures/videos published in recent days and weeks on the referendum. Im aware that some readers of this liveblog will be steeped in the debate, and some will not know their Salmonds from their Saltires.
7.06am BST
Fortifying ourselves with tablet and enthusiasm, the Guardians team in Scotland will be covering polling day from beginning to result and beyond. Clicking on their names will show you their tweets, but well also be showing off their contributions in this liveblog.
In Edinburgh, alongside me, Claire Phipps, are my colleagues (in no particular order) Andrew Sparrow, Severin Carrell, Nicholas Watt, Polly Curtis, Paul Owen, Frances Perraudin, John Crace and Michael White.
Thursday's Guardian front page - "Day of destiny" #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers #indyref pic.twitter.com/h1JD44JDI5
6.59am BST
Good morning and welcome to live coverage of what will be whatever the result a day that will change Scotland, and the rest of the United Kingdom, profoundly.
The result certainly is too close to call, with a poll last night putting the No vote at 51% and Yes at 49%, excluding those voters still undecided which way to topple.
Continue reading...