In the final days before the independence vote, the Telegraph finds opinion divided amongst the working man’s philosphers, Edinburgh cabbies. Outside Waverley station in Edinburgh, a queue of black cabs waits for passengers to arrive in the city. Behind plexiglass screens sit the men and women who know this city well and are exposed to a wide range of opinions from customers who work in Scotland or who come as tourists. Never known to be shy about sharing their insight, I went to ask the cabbies about what they thought of the prospect for Scottish independence. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m a No,” explained cab driver Robin Borthwick. He is about to become a grandfather for the first time and he fears for the future of Scotland as an independent country. For Mr Borthwick the arguments about Scotland being better off with control over its own assets are far outweighed by the fear of potential financial instability. He doesn’t believe that Scotland can make it as an independent country and, he says, he wouldn’t stay around if the vote doesn’t go his way. He explained: “I’m seriously thinking of moving down south (if there is a Yes vote). We’ve worked hard all our days and we’ve got a nice wee pot (of money) and I wouldn’t let that be taken away from us.” For another driver Dougie, who didn’t want to give his second name, it’s this fear of losing what you have got rather than hoping for the future that divides the Yes and No camps. “The people that have done well out of the union are likely to be voting No and the people who have got nothing are likely to be voting Yes,” he says. He also believes that the arguments over whether Scotland could keep the pound and what sort of currency union it could potentially join with the Bank of England are moot. “If you have nothing, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got no pounds, no euros, no dollars.” Dougie is not a fan of the political system and freely admits he doesn’t expect moving power to Holyrood to fix that immediately, but he hopes that it might be a step in the right direction. For 17 per cent of the country who have yet to decide which way to vote, the next few days are going to be about weighing up that fear of the unknown against hope for the future. Get the latest headlines http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Telegraph http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=telegraphtv Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/telegraph.co.uk Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/telegraph Follow us on Google+ https://plus.google.com/102891355072777008500/ Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Daily Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.

• published: 15 Sep 2014
• views: 951