LAUGHTER rings out around the self-proclaimed Last Cafe in England the second we mention the words ‘newspaper’ and ‘Scottish referendum.’

“We’d just this very second been saying, all these journalists driving past us going up to Scotland,’ says Carol Weston of the Camien Cafe, ten miles south of the border on the A68, ‘and not one of them, not a single one, has stopped to ask our opinion.”

We explain we’re not part of the hoards of national and international media looking for placard-wavers but a North-East newspaper . The laughter subsides and the opinions come thick, fast and strong as whisky.

Carol’s husband, Damien, ex-army, served in the divided nation of Cyprus, is against. A ‘first responder’ for the ambulance service, who worries that there could be delays getting people from small, close-border communities like Byrness to the hospital in Galashiels. He has worries for his own business, especially if there is a currency change in Scotland.

“At least half my currency is in Scottish notes, I went to the bank this week with every note Scottish. If people have to change their currency they won’t stop. We’d be in deep trouble, we wouldn’t survive.”

Carol and Damien have had many debates with customers, both ‘yeses’ and ‘nos’ although they say there’s slightly more against. “Some of the ‘yeses’ are staunch, but they can’t answer the questions on what’s going to happen to the army, the NHS, you name it. The political leaders are misleading them, they want shooting.”

Their customer, Thomas Young - “I’m a proud Scot, Edinburgh through-and-through” - agrees. He’s lived in South Shields for 25 years and fears for the North-East as much as his native land.

“I’m raging I haven’t got a vote, I’m Scottish as anyone. If the economy falls in Scotland, or if it tries to suck businesses from here up there, it could be worse for the North-East than anywhere else, Scotland included.”

His worries are echoed by some business leaders and politicians in the region concerned that a new Scottish Government would be able to offer a lower Corporation Tax, luring business north of the border and would also be able to invest in specific industries. Others, including leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, spot an opportunity. Businesses, including banks, worried about political uncertainty in Scotland, could relocate south, they say.

It’s hard to know who is right, but a few miles down the A68 and Les Telfer, who runs a newspaper shop and post office in the typically beautiful small Northumbrian small town of Bellingham, right on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, is in no doubt that the effect of separation would be bad economically for the region. He points to the Scottish notes in his till and says a new Scottish currency cause trouble.

But Les also talks of an emotional separation, kith and kin becoming foreigners overnight.

He says: “Most people here are against. People have family and friends over the border. I’ve got family in Hawick, Gallashiels, Melrose. There wasn’t the desire for this, it’s all been stirred up by Alex Salmond who fancies himself as the King of Scotland. It will cost us all dearly and who’s going to pay for it? Ordinary people, both sides of the border, that’s who.”

The emotional attachment to Britain is evidenced elsewhere. Here in Bellingham, the Union Flag flies as it has since the last Royal Wedding. On the other side of the country, near Gretna, a ‘friendship cairn’ made up for thousands of stones left by individuals across the island who want to maintain the 307-year union has been created.

But that emotion and passion, as articulated by Les, Damien and Thomas isn’t felt by all, even those close to the border. Waitress Danielle Robinson, 21, a student, says that it hasn’t been a hot topic of conversation in the Fountain Cottage Cafe. “The only issue that comes up really is the currency issue, I don’t think people it will affect them,” she says although she hopes for a no vote herself. Her boss, cafe owner Joanne Taheem, agrees with Danielle, citing the currency as an issue but saying she hasn’t heard much chat about anything else to do with the possible separation.

“That said, the currency change would be a nightmare,” says Joanne.

It seems most people on our side of the border, like Joanne, believe the leading English political figures’ warning that Scotland will need a new currency. Cross the border and it was easy to find people putting that threat down to scaremongering.

Grant Dunlop, a Scot living in Bellingham, was against like every person we spoke to in Northumberland, English and Scottish alike. He was worried about practical issues. “What about people with property both side of the border? It’s not just the Duke of Northumberland, there’s the Keilder Forest and people living in Scotland but working in England, what about them? Who do pay tax to? The whole thing is a bad idea.”

Others, including villager Bridget Arnup, who travels to Hawick in Scotland to shop, also raised concerns about “the border becoming a frontier,” our own Checkpoint Geordie, complete with passport control.

Like the currency, frontier control threat has been dismissed by pro-Independence Scottish politicians as little more than scaremongering. Other issues, like access to the hospital, tax payments, would be sorted out easily, they say.

Perhaps those Scottish politicians should cross the border and tell that to the voteless, worried people of Northumberland.