Hollywood actor Alan Cumming, who hoped to back independence in next year's referendum after buying a flat in Edinburgh, has revealed he cannot even cast a vote.
The Scots star said he is ineligible for the September 18 poll because he will be spending most of the year working on Broadway.
The Yes supporter wrote in his blog: "My main residence is in New York and I will be working there on Broadway for most of next year. I am ineligible to vote and have had to come off the electoral roll. I am obviously very sad to miss this opportunity to take an active part in deciding Scotland's future, but despite that I am determinded to use my voice and express my opinion - two traits that every Scotsman both deserves and holds dear."
He said he had bought the home because "I wanted a base in Scotland again, I wanted to be nearer my mum. I had been registered to vote in London and now registered in Edinburgh. I looked forward to being able to vote in the Independence referendum next year."
He said that although he is an optimist he has "recently been reminded that the greatest spur to optimism and positivity can actually be the very opposite: in my case the negativity, vitriol and malice of some quarters of the Scottish press regarding my buying a home in Edinburgh, and especially from the proponents of the No Campaign, or to give it its utterly cynical, formal moniker Better Together."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article