What Scots think about the referendum, one year on

If there were another independence referendum, the people of Scotland would vote to leave the union, Alex Salmond has said.

Speaking with the i in an exclusive interview on the first anniversary of the vote, Scotland’s former First Minister said support for independence was at a record high - and that another campaign would seal it.

The former SNP leader said the matter was now inevitable:

Even if nothing changed in terms of people's perceptions, the matter is an underlying generational one now. The people that formed their political attitudes in recent times - and that's not just young people incidentally, that's people through the age groups - their political attitudes are now set, they have been forged in the fire of the referendum campaign and they are not going back into their box. All we're debating is timescale.

Polling expert Professor John Curtice of the University of Stratchclye, who successfully predicted a Conservative majority in the general election, said:

Based on five polls over the last month, Yes and No are tied on 50% each, making the two sides closer in the polls than at any time during the referendum campaign.

In a recent YouGov poll for The Times between 7-10 September 2015, 49 per cent of Scottish adults said they would vote "No", to 45 per cent who would vote "Yes".

Despite the current surge in support for independence now, however, most Scots stuck by the choice they made in 2014. Only four per cent of respondents said they wished they had voted differently in last year's referendum.

More:Here's what would happen if there was a Scottish independence referendum tomorrow

More:Your questions about an independent Scotland, answered