GLASGOW, Sept 13, 2014 (AFP) – Five days ahead of Scotland’s independence referendum the race remained too close to call today, with the misgivings of business leaders over the prospect of quitting the United Kingdom becoming louder.

Opinion polls on Friday gave campaigners for Scotland to stay in Britain a slight lead as the leaders of both camps trade increasingly bitter rhetoric.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, leader of the pro-independence movement, was on a whistle stop tour of four cities as he battles to win enough support to end the union between Scotland and England, which dates back to 1707.
“Scotland stands on the cusp of history,” he wrote in an article for the Daily Record newspaper. “I am more confident than ever that the people of Scotland are going to say ‘Yes,’” at Thursday’s historic referendum.

A Guardian/ICM poll out Friday put the “Yes” campaign on 49 per cent compared to 51 per cent for the “No” camp when undecided voters were excluded.

The campaign to retain the union was forced to reboot this week after a (London) Sunday Times/YouGov poll out on Sunday put the “Yes” camp narrowly ahead for the first time.

This prompted Britain’s main party leaders including Prime Minister David Cameron to rush to Scotland to campaign and promise new devolved powers if Scots vote to stay in Britain.

But a YouGov poll published Friday in The Times put the “No” camp four points ahead on 52 per cent once undecided voters were stripped out.
This was the first time the pollsters have recorded the pro-union side gaining ground since early August.
The new surveys came after a string of big businesses with Scottish interests made statements on their contingency plans in the event of independence.

Banking giant RBS was among those to say they could re-register their headquarters in England following an independence vote but insisted this would not cause major job losses.

Department store John Lewis and supermarket ASDA also warned Scottish shoppers that they could face higher prices post-independence.
But the “Yes” camp has reacted bullishly, insisting that warnings over the potential economic consequences of independence were “entirely speculative”.
Salmond also claims that Cameron has prompted some industry leaders to weigh into the debate.
“The Prime Minister’s fingerprints are all over the claims from one or two supermarket bosses,” he told an event in Aberdeen.
But global investment giant Deutsche Bank on Friday weighed in on the side of “No”, saying that independence “would go down in history as a political and economic mistake” as large as those that caused the Great Depression.

Independence fears increasing

A vote for independence could have a major impact on Britain’s position in international bodies such as the United Nations and European Union.

An independent Scotland would create Europe’s newest state since the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Acknowledging the gravity of the situation, Finance Minister George Osborne and Bank of England chief Mark Carney on Friday said they had cancelled plans to attend a G20 meeting in Australia because of the referendum.
YouGov’s president Peter Kellner said people’s fears over what independence might do to their bank accounts was increasing, particularly among women.
He added that the intervention this week of Labour’s former British prime minister Gordon Brown, a Scot, had seemingly stemmed the flow of Labour voters to the independence cause.

Meanwhile, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage urged a “No” vote during a speech in Glasgow on Friday.
The anti-EU politician, whose party has minimal support in Scotland, said the referendum was not actually about independence, but was instead for “signing up to become a province of the European Union”, arguing that Scotland would have to join the Euro as the UK would not let it share the pound.

“You can’t be an independent country if you are a member of the EU,” he said. “It’s not only a non-starter but also a total illusion.” Farage had been urged to stay away by fellow “No” campaigners amid fears he could harm their case.

She was captured ‘photo-bombing’ two Commonwealth Games athletes over the summer and has even posed for her first ‘selfie’.

But the Queen has confided that she actually finds the phenomena of people filming her on their mobile phones rather ‘strange’.

Never one to get on her soapbox, her feelings on the subject have, however, been made public by the US Ambassador to the UK, Matthew Barzun.

The 43-year-old diplomat, tipped as a future American president, told this month’s Tatler magazine that he was invited, along with his wife, to Buckingham Palace when they arrived in the UK last year.

He recalled how they had a ‘nice chat’ with the Queen, who told them ‘how strange she finds it these days, with the crowds all standing there holding up their mobile phones’.

‘She was essentially saying, ‘I miss eye contact,’ Mr Barzun told the magazine.

The 88-year-old sovereign is by no means a Luddite – owning a mobile phone and an iPod on which, it is said, staff download The Proms for her to listen to.

She and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, 93, are also said to be surprisingly computer literate.

But according to senior royal sources the Queen does find the trend for members of the public to stand close up and attempt to film their encounters with her ‘not a little disconcerting’.

On her recent state visit to Paris, it is understood that some over-excited members of the public had to be physically restrained as they rushed forward, camera phones brandished, to photograph and video her

The Queen was declared to have carried out the ‘best photo-bomb in history’ when she walked, smiling, into a shot being taken by two Australian hockey players at the Commonwealth Games earlier this summer.

Opened in 1865, the famous Langham Hotel is known as one of the most haunted hotels in the world. It was once again in news after England cricketers asked for change of rooms during their Test matches played in London.

The London-based hotel has a reputation for inducing fear among its guests with rather strange incidents.

The recent cricketer who complained about such an incident was senior England bowler Stuart Broad. He said that during his stay at the hotel, taps in his room were on and off out of nowhere.

The England pacer’s girlfriend Bealey too had a tough time staying at the hotel

Broad further stated that his England teammate Moeen Ali and his better half experienced something strange at the venue. He also said that Ben Stokes too had faced trouble during his stay at the Langham.

England bowler though said that his stay during the ongoing series against India has been relatively fine.

As reported in Daily Mail, room 333 at the hotel is believed to be the most haunted with the hotel’s own website stating:

“In 1973 a BBC radio announcer James Alexander-Gordon awoke suddenly in the night to see a fluorescent ball which slowly took on the shape of a man wearing Victorian evening wear. The announcer asked the ghost what it wanted and it began to float towards him, with its legs cut off some two feet below the ground, arms outstretched, eyes staring emptily. At this point the announcer got up and fled.”

A customer at a KFC in Newcastle, England was served a deep-fried blue hand towel instead of chicken. According to the Daily Mail,

People always joke about fast food meat — especially deep-fried fast food meat — maybe not being from the animal it claims to be. And while we’re pretty sure that KFC generally does indeed serve up actual chicken, one family in England ended up buying a Colonel’s Original Recipe hand towel.

A woman from Newcastle tells the Daily Mail that she recently bought some KFC chicken for her 7-year-old stepson, but when the youngster went to chow down on the fried bird, it revealed something blue and inedible inside.

“I got a shock,” says the stepmom. “I thought the actual chicken had gone off.”

She says it was actually worse to discover that it wasn’t spoiled chicken, but a deep-fried hand towel.

“If it was bad chicken they might have just had a bad batch or something,” she explains. “But the blue roll could have been used for anything – it could have bleach or disinfectant on it… Had someone wiped their hands on it, had it been used to wipe the floor?”

She says that when she took the hand towel and its 11 herbs and spices back to the KFC, she was told to contact KFC customer support. She did, but even then, the company wasn’t terribly responsive.

“I had to keep ringing them and keep following it up,” she says. “It felt like I had to do all the work when it was their mistake.”

KFC eventually investigated the matter and issued an apology, along with an offer of a free meal for their troubles.

“The blue tissue has most likely originated from a tissue roll used for KFC hygiene purposes,” reads the explanation given to the family. “The store assume it must have fallen unseen into the breading lug that is under the sieve and was not noticed by the cook.”

It has been reported that there is a plan of sending a light air craft with LTTE flag to the grounds while the first test match Sri Lanka vs England is going on at Lord’s grounds.

Even before, this had been planed when there was a match, but, it didn’t reach the grounds as it had stopped at a brand of a tree.

Root’s 102 not out helped take England to 344 for five at stumps on the first day of the first Test after they’d been struggling at 74 for three when the 23-year-old Yorkshireman walked out to bat.

Root, who made a Test-best 180 against Australia at Lord’s last year, was well supported by Matt Prior (76 not out) in a so-far unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 135.

However, recalled wicketkeeper Prior was fortunate not be out for a second-ball duck before completing just his second 50 in 21 Test innings.

Moeen Ali (48), one of three debutants in a new-look England side following their 5-0 Ashes drubbing in Australia, had previously helped Root steady the ship during a fifth-wicket stand of 89.

“It’s a very slow wicket and hard to time when the ball goes softer,” Root told Sky Sports.

“It was a day when you had to scrap,” he added after batting for more than five hours.

“Nothing beats Test cricket in my eyes and the challenge of trying to score runs in the first Test of the summer after the winter we had was one I relished.”

Before this match, Australia great Shane Warne said England ought to have given a debut to Jos Buttler and left Prior out.

However, Root said he was delighted to have the Sussex gloveman alongside him.

“I love batting with Matty. He’s a great bloke to have in the side and to play how he has is testament to his character and his quality as a player.”

Things initially went well for Sri Lanka after captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to field.

Although sunny blue skies above suggested ideal batting conditions, the pitch was a greener-looking one than usually associated with Lord’s at this time of year.

- Early double strike -

Mathews’s decision yielded a quick reward as England lost both their openers inside the first half hour.

Australia-born Sam Robson, one of England’s newcomers along with Ali and all-rounder Chris Jordan, fell for one on his Middlesex home ground when drawn forward into edging a full-length Nuwan Pradeep delivery that was well caught by diving wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene.

And 14 for one became 22 for two when England captain Alastair Cook (17) edged a cut off Nuwan Kulasekara into his stumps.

But from then on things got tougher for the tourists as the pitch flattened out.

“We bowled pretty well on this wicket,” said Sri Lanka bowling coach Chaminda Vaas.

“I thought in the first few hours we bowled in some good areas,” the former left-arm seamer added.

“I didn’t expect more (than five wickets) because something happened in the wicket in the first few hours.”

England had struggled to 98 for three at lunch, also losing Gary Ballance.

But Bell was unbeaten on 41 and looked in excellent touch in his 99th Test.

After lunch, Bell drove left-arm spinner Rangana Herath for six to go to a 69-ball 50.

But he was out soon afterwards when lbw to Eranga although Sri Lanka first had to review Australian umpire Paul Reiffel’s original not out decision .

Ali began cautiously but the left-hander and Root were both 43 not out at tea.

Root subsequently completed his fifty but Ali fell when he drove loosely at Herath and was caught by Mahela Jayawardene at slip.

Prior, dropped during the Ashes, had still to score on Thursday when struck on the back leg by Herath.

Sri Lanka appealed for lbw but Reiffel ruled in Prior’s favour and, despite a review, the ‘umpire’s call’ stood after replays indicated the ball had pitched fractionally outside off stump.

Meanwhile Root cut and cover-drove Eranga for two well-struck boundaries.

Prior, who marked his Test debut with a hundred at Lord’s against the West Indies in 2007, reached 50 when he cover-drove Pradeep, bowling with the new ball, for his seventh four.

Root, obliged to be more vigilant, drove Kulasekara down the ground for just his eighth boundary to go to 96 before reaching his third hundred in 16 Tests with three off Herath.

-NDTV