Patrick Harvie: Uncertain future still holds hope

In a column for this paper last month he seemed to be playing the role of Ghost of Christmas Past, reminding Yes Scotland of its perhaps naive optimism in earlier days and its talk of growing momentum for the independence cause.

Every campaign likes to talk up its own chances, and I’ve no doubt that Euan could dig up a few over-optimistic predictions of Green electoral success from my own back catalogue if he was so minded. But in truth, everyone making the case for a Yes vote has known for a long time that we have a real job on our hands. With a proposition that’s inherently radical at a time of economic uncertainty, and an opposition which feels the need neither to defend the status quo nor to offer a coherent vision of change, but rather thinks that doubt and fear will win its case, this was never going to be a breeze.

What will ultimately determine how undecided voters make their choice will vary widely, but for all the Yes campaign’s challenges in taking on this task, we’re learning more all the time about the ways in which those voters can be won over. More importantly, we’re steadily building the capacity at a local level to deliver an active campaign across Scotland during the main 16-week referendum period.

It’s worth remembering too that the story isn’t over once the ghosts of Christmas Past and Present have disappeared. There is one more Ghost to meet, which may have just a chance to prompt a change 
of heart. So let us consider the Ghost of Scotland’s Christmas Yet to Come.

Because by the time we’re all writing our reflective opinion columns in 2014 we’ll know what the voters of Scotland have decided to do. Whichever choice they make, we’ll be entering a new political landscape, with the