Blair Jenkins claims Yes campaign has already secured more than 40% of traditional Labour voters Michael Settle, UK Political Editor, Wednesday 17 September 2014 The Yes campaign has already secured more than 40 per cent of traditional Labour voters and is now hopeful of getting a majority of them in tomorrows vote, according to its leader Blair Jenkins. And the Yes Scotland Chief Executive, speaking at the campaigns last rally in Glasgow, also dismissed Ed Milibands complaints of ugly intimidation by pro-independence campaigners as nothing more than another attempt at hyperbole to distract people from how the No campaign was losing the argument. Around 300 people with Yes placards, balloons and Saltires crowded onto the steps near Donald Dewars statue in the Buchanan Street shopping centre - now bearing a Yes sticker on its lapel - for the pro-independence campaigns final public gathering. As a piper played, the enthusiastic crowd chanted yes we can - and we will and hope not fear. Among those also addressing the crowd were Dennis Canavan, Chairman of Yes Scotlands Advisory Board, Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green Party leader, and Elaine C Smith, the actress and prominent Yes campaigner. Amid the swell, Mr Jenkins insisted he was convinced of victory because of all the grassroots feedback. Were talking to hundreds of thousands of people. Were talking to people canvassing at a rate thats more than twice the rate of any political party in Scotland has ever exceeded...We have a far better idea of where the public mood of Scotland is. Noting how his campaigns private polling indicated that 40 per cent of Labour voters were intent on voting Yes, Mr Jenkins said: Im hopeful tomorrow that 50 per cent or more of people who normally vote Labour in Scotland will vote Yes... Weve had a very good response from Labour voting areas, so I believe what we have done, as the biggest grassroots movement Scotland has ever seen, is bring into the debate people who have become completely alientated from the political process. That has been a tremendous achievement. I believe people who have Labour values in Scotland are, by a majority, going to vote Yes. Asked about Mr Milibands treatment in Edinburgh yesterday when he was confronted by a mob of Yes supporters, Mr Jenkin said: It didnt look to me anything different than what you see in a normal general election campaign. Asked if he thought the Labour leader was protesting too much, he replied: Yeah, indeed. What has happened in the last couple of weeks is theres been an attempt by the No campaign to hype up any examples of people not behaving absolutely perfectly to try to misrepresent the nature of this campaign. Its a classic campaign tactic when you are losing the argument, change the subject and thats what the No campaign have been trying to do. The former BBC executive, asked about the recent Yes demonstration outside the Corporations Glasgow HQ, described it as a good-natured crowd. He added: Again, there has been an attempt, for fairly obvious reasons, to talk up that event as though it was something different from what it was. heraldscotland/politics/referendum-news/blair-jenkins-claims-yes-campaign-has-already-secured-more-than-40-of-tradi.1410955147
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:46:57 +0000