Robin Ellis

 The polling booths are open and the show is on the road.

From the Highlands to the Lowlands from the east coast to the west coast, over 90% of the population is expected to vote–unprecedented in a western democratic referendum.

It’s a game changer, they are saying; even if it’s “NO”, nothing will ever be the same again.

Watching the NO campaign in panic mode, desperately playing catch-up when the polls started shifting–promising the kitchen sink to save the Union, has been entertaining.

But now, there’s nothing left to do but vote–if you live in Scotland–or twiddle your thumbs, if you don’t, awaiting the results tomorrow morning.

I fell to a spot of speculation while my thumbs were twiddling.

Just supposing the vote today was taking place in the far west of ENGLAND.

The Cornish were deciding whether to cut loose from Albion (“emmet land” to the Cornish) and go it alone! (There have been rumblings!)

And just supposing Ross Poldark had the gift of eternal life (well, Mammoth TV Productions are doing a convincing job reviving him!), how would he VOTE?

Trotting down the lane to the polling station in Pendeen, where would his cross go?

YES or NO??

Any clues?

He’s a free spirit, independent, anti-establishment, a risk taker, a convention flaunter, out of his time even.

He’s been “elsewhere”, albeit to fight for the “oppressor” in America. He has seen another side of things.

He’s a landowner, mine boss, member of the privileged class, yes–but…

Unlike the denizens of Downton Abbey, upstairs at least–safe to bet on a “no” there–Ross is less easy to predict.

(Though I felt disappointed to read that later in life he’d accepted a knighthood and become a Tory MP and best friends with Foreign Secretary George Canning! Ross Poldark!? Scourge of the local gentry, defender of the poor, natural leftie?!  Oh dear…!

So voting “NO”, Ross?

I’ll answer for him. (Well we were quite close for a while!) Begging Winston Graham’s pardon for the presumption of course….

 I’d wager that he’d not be able to resist the call.

Cornwall for the Cornish! Clear out the cupboard and start over–a new order!

“We’ve tin and copper–well, we’ll find it and china clay too.”

The old radical Ross would awake and be leading the charge–to the cliffs’ edge some would be saying.

“You know me well,” says Ross. “Did you see Andy Murray’s tweet this morning?”

“Let’s do this!”

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