DUMFRIES and Galloway MP Richard Arkless told The National before our Roadshow visit that there is evidence of change in an area that voted a big No to independence in 2014, with more and more people turning to Yes.
Yesterday, our team got the same feeling, with only a few of those we spoke to still hesitant about Scotland going it alone. Carer Christiana Adeboh-Samuel, from Dumfries, left, said an independent Scotland would open up new doors for everyone and added: “I think it would be great for this country. It would be great for the NHS and jobs. I think it is very important to be part of the EU. I love Scotland.”
Richard Stewart, below, a jobseeker from Dumfries, said he will definitely be voting Yes in the next referendum and is even more convinced since Brexit and the treatment of Scotland from Theresa May. He said: “I am struggling to find a job even though I have lots of qualifications. I think job prospects might be better under an independent Scotland. I think the English government just kind of f**** us over a bit. I would like independence. Theresa May seemed OK to start with but she’s gone down the wrong road. She reminds me of Margaret Thatcher.”
No voter Elma Graham, from Dumfries, a retired classroom assistant, has not been persuaded that independence is a good idea.
Elma, below, said: “Leaving the EU hasn’t changed my mind. I feel strongly that we should all be together, partly because I have lived south of the Border in Middlesbrough and Suffolk. I’ve been in Dumfries since 1993 and was shocked by reports in the local press about English people coming up here and taking jobs. We were welcomed everywhere down south. I see no need for us to be a divided country.”
Friends Tony Mills and Phil Taylor, who both live near Dalbeattie, but were in Middlesbrough and Newcastle respectfully before moving up Dumfries and Galloway, have slightly different views. Tony, above left, said: “This is God’s country. I love it and I would love Scotland to be independent but there are too many things stacked up against it at the moment like a £15 billion-a-year deficit and they are not giving us enough information. The SNP wants to blame Westminster for everything.”
Phil, left, said: “I am quite the opposite from Tony but I just wonder if people in Westminster are more concerned about how they will do without Scotland as opposed to how Scotland will cope on its own.
“I would vote Yes. If Scotland wants to go independent, so be it even though Tony and I both voted to leave the EU.”
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