No voters outnumber those intending to vote for Scottish independence in the small Highland town of Ballater, eight miles from the British royal family's Balmoral Estate, in Aberdeenshire, according to locals.
The winding road towards the town runs alongside the River Dee and the area is called Royal Deeside in recognition of the family’s long association with the area. Stand-alone signs urging people to vote against independence are a common sight in the fields that sometimes create a break in the forest that lines the A93, though a blue Yes sign adorns the window of the occasional cottage.
In Ballater itself, shops such as Countrywear, which sells hunting and fishing equipment as well as tartans and tweeds, the Deeside Deli, Cassie’s hardware and appliance store, George Strachen grocers and Chalmers bakery, have plaques on their outside walls advertising the fact that they are suppliers to “her royal majesty the Queen”.
Norman Clements, owner of Countrywear, is from Devon but moved to Ballater 23 years ago. The referendum “is the stupidest thing ever, and it’s all due to [Scottish National Party leader] Alex Salmond’s ego,” he says from behind the counter. “It’s causing a lot of friction among people that normally get along fine.”
Economic difficulties
Alastair Cassie, owner of the hardware shop, has a Union Jack flying outside “because I think we should be united. United we stand, divided we fall. That’s how I see it.”
He says the lack of support locally for Scottish independence has more to do with common sense and concerns about the economy, than anything to do with the queen.
But college student Alistair Vincent (22) does not entirely agree. He is going to vote Yes in the hope that it will change the political situation, which is says is “stagnant”. His vote is for a change to how politics works, rather than independence in itself.
Most of his friends are voting No, he says, probably because the economic difficulties that have hit other parts of Scotland, haven't really been felt around Ballater. The way the royal family has supported local businesses could also be a factor, he says, pointing out that the shops with the plaques supplying the Balmoral estate.
Amy Muir (26), who has a photography shop in the town, is going to vote Yes. “It seems like the right thing to do. I want an independent Scotland.” She has friends in Glasgow and they are all voting Yes. Her friends in Ballater are voting No.
Campbell Parker (26), who is from Edinburgh but works and lives in Ballater, is also going to vote Yes. He wants to see a government that is more representative of the political views of the Scottish people. “Ninety-five per cent of my friends in Edinburgh are going to vote Yes,” he says. But that view is “definitely a minority one around here”.
Status quo
When Yes campaigners put a stall up on the green on Sunday, some of the shops put up the Union Jack, he says.
He doesn’t think independence will weaken the role of the queen as head of state for the Scottish people, nor does he think her reported comments up the road, when attending service in the small church beside her estate on Sunday, were aimed at encouraging people to vote No. Urging people to think very seriously about their vote, “seems a sensible statement to make”.*
Susanna Peterson, a mental health nurse who is just about to retire, is from Tarland, about 10 miles from Ballater. She will vote yes “because I don’t like the capitalist system and the only way I can see to change it is to have a completely different government”.
She is hopeful that, with time, the government of an independent Scotland would be more representative of egalitarian, centre-left politics. The Scottish used to be strong supporters of the Labour Party “and maybe in time people can be persuaded to go back to that way of thinking”.
She doesn’t think the link with the royal family is why so many people around Ballater appear to be against independence.
“In general, the people around here are very well-off, and so they are voting for the status quo.”
*This article was amended on September 18th 2014
