Peter Lynch

WHEN the September 18, 2014 came, I was already tired and set for a long day and night. Many of our campaigners were up before the crack of dawn to deliver Yes A-boards to all our polling stations. I wasn’t one of them. Instead I was en route to Stirling University for my first lecture at 9am – 250 new students about to listen to a lecture on British politics on the day it was set to change, one way or another.

GERRY’S café sits on Pennywell Road in Muirhouse. Our local Yes campaigners would meet there regularly before every activity. We were there so often because we were conducting our own mass canvas of Muirhouse (I even took holidays there) as well as some other parts of West Edinburgh. It took over a year to speak with and register as many local people as we could and we were acutely aware that a fair section of potential Yes voters weren’t on the electoral register or did not participate in electoral politics.