MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti), Ekaterina Blinova - According to Scotland's latest poll, conducted by Survation, "No" voters who oppose Scottish independence from the UK are six points ahead of "Yes" voters who wish to see their country split from England and Northern Ireland.
"An exclusive survey for the Daily Record gives the No side a six point lead - the same margin as two months ago. While it means the referendum result is still on a knife edge, it may signal the Nationalist momentum built on the back of other narrow polls may have peaked too early," the Daily Record reports.
The survey has found that a gap exists between Scottish women inclined to vote Yes (38.6 percent) and those who don't support independence (48.5 percent). The poll indicates that the male vote is split nearly 50/50 between proponents and antagonists of Scottish independence.
Remarkably, the survey has also indicated that Western Scots demonstrate the most support for independence, with 51.3 percent of respondents planning to vote Yes versus 39.4 percent indicating that they will vote No. The majority of Unionists live in the South of Scotland: 55.1 percent say they will vote No, while only 38 percent are going to back Independence.
The Daily Record underscores that the Survation poll has apparently given a significant boost to the pro-UK Better Together Campaign.
The media outlet cites Blair McDougall, the Director of the Better Together Campaign as saying: "Alex Salmond wants us to take so many huge risks - over our pound, pensions and NHS. The last few days have shown that these risks are real. Separation would cost jobs and push up costs for families in Scotland. This is too important for a protest vote. There would be no going back. We don't need to take on all these risks."
Meanwhile, prominent British oil industry experts have joined a chorus of those, who are urging Scots to give up on their idea of independence from the UK. Sir Ian Wood, one of the most respected figures in the oil industry, insists that the Scottish Government has overestimated North Sea oil reserves by 60 percent, according to the Scotsman. Other experts point to the fact that the existing industry's infrastructure is getting older, with falling outputs, an independent Scotland would be faced with increased oil production costs.
"As existing infrastructure gets older and output falls, costs will go up and tax receipts will come down," says Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, as cited by the Scotsman.
"Furthermore, much of the UK North Sea's remaining oil and gas, which is yet to be discovered and developed, is in isolated or hard-to-reach areas, which are potentially uneconomic without sharing of existing infrastructure and improved tax incentives," he emphasizes.
However, the proponents of the "Yes" vote seem not to get discouraged by the gloomy predictions of their opponents.
The Scotsman quotes Kenny Anderson, who represents the pro-independence group Business for Scotland as saying: "These statements come as one of the UK's leading oil economists, Professor Alex Kemp of the University of Aberdeen, today predicts a potential North Sea bonus of 99 new discoveries in the next 30 years." Kenny Anderson points out that Professor Kemp is an "extremely well respected" expert and Unionists should take what he says into consideration.
