A glorious, flag-waving defence of our kingdom’s union: Whisper it - Britain would be nothing without Scotland... and Scotland will be nothing if conceited Salmond’s in charge Daily Mail

Imagine yourself at a very smart dinner party and the conversation gets round to the issue of Scottish independence. Suppose people whose intelligence and thoughtfulness you’ve long respected, such as Sir David Attenborough and historians Simon Schama and Professor Mary Beard, said they thought that it was in the best interests of Scotland to remain within the United Kingdom rather than going it alone in the world.

Then people who were at the top of their professions, such as the former chiefs of the Defence Staff, Marshal of the Air Force ‘Jock’ Stirrup, Lord Stirrup, and Field Marshal Charles Guthrie, Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, agreed with them, as did the former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Alan West.

At the other end of the table, some of the brainiest people in Europe, including Stephen Hawking and the former Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, wholeheartedly agree.

Wouldn’t you listen very carefully to what they have to say? Especially if historians of the calibre of Margaret MacMillan and Tom Holland, intellectuals of the experience of Melvyn Bragg and Joan Bakewell, actors of the quality of Sir Patrick Stewart and Dame Judi Dench also weighed in, saying exactly the same thing?

Wouldn’t these views be at least worth considering very profoundly? Not if you’re someone of the vanity and self-regard – or perhaps by now the sheer desperation – of Alex Salmond.

The Yes campaign has sneered at the opinions of some of the most profound thinkers and intellectuals of our day who have just written a joint letter opposing Scottish independence, simply because they were joined on the page by a number of TV celebrities, comedians and social gadflies who were asked to join the 200-strong list.

Read more here:

Further Reading

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective

Alex Salmond threatens to default on share of debts

"Economists warned that a debt default would wreck the country’s reputation for fiscal responsibility."

'We have no plan B': Alex Salmond admits he has no back-up plan if an independent Scotland was not allowed to keep the pound. Daily Mail

  First Minister made admission in an open letter to voters in today's Sun

  'It implies settling for second best', he said, insisting Scots can keep pound

  But his plan is contested by all three main political parties in Westminster

  Ed Miliband reveals he will campaign against currency union in 2015 election

Alex Salmond has admitted there is no acceptable 'Plan B' if an independent Scotland is barred from using the British pound. The First Minister said dropping the pound 'implies settling for what's second best' - but still insisted there will be a deal on a currency union with the rest of the UK.

His admission came in an open letter to voters setting out why he has not yielded to calls to disclose a back-up plan, if his favoured option of sharing the pound and the Bank of England fails.

The letter, published in the Sun, declared: 'It is revealing that our opponents in the No camp like to talk about a "Plan B" on currency.

'It's revealing because it says it all about what they think of Scotland.

'Plan B implies settling for what's second best. And neither myself, my colleagues in the SNP, or the wider Yes campaign will ever settle for second best for Scotland.

Read more here:

Further Reading and Insight

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective,

Surge in no vote after Alex Salmond TV flop: Major blow for SNP in wake of debate defeat Daily Mail

Viewers believe Alistair Darling crushed Alex Salmond in live televised debate

Poll reveals nearly quarter of viewers now more likely to reject independence

More than two-thirds of 1,010 Scots polled said First Minister needs 'plan B'

The shock Survation poll, carried out on Wednesday and Thursday, shows that opposition to separation has soared to 50 per cent for the first time since the firm began asking the question.

That is a remarkable four point increase in the space of a single week, with only 37 per cent now in favour of a Yes vote – down three points. When undecided voters are excluded, the No camp is on 57 per cent – a massive 14-point lead over Yes, compared to just a six-point lead last Sunday.

Mr Salmond's failure to answer questions about the currency of an independent Scotland is at the heart of the dramatic collapse.

More than two-thirds of the 1,010 Scots polled by Survation said the First Minister should produce a 'plan B' to his unrealistic bid to keep the pound before voters cast their ballots.

Asked to pick adjectives to describe the SNP leader's performance in the pivotal STV debate last Tuesday – which was watched by 1.7million people – the most popular choices were 'weak', 'uninformed' and 'dishonest'

.

His opponent, former Chancellor Mr Darling who is spearheading the Better Together campaign, was described as 'knowledgeable' and 'strong'.

Mr Salmond's leadership is now under unprecedented scrutiny, with senior SNP figures privately briefing against him throughout the week and some suggesting his deputy Nicola Sturgeon should replace him for a crunch TV debate on the BBC later this month. 

Read more here:

Further Reading

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective

Alex Salmond on the ropes: Bookies say he’s 4/1 to stand down as First Minister, Daily Express, updated

EMBATTLED Alex Salmond was ­fighting on two fronts last night to quell growing SNP rage over his disastrous TV debate and save his currency plans.

Questions were raised about the First Minister’s future after senior lieutenants started briefing against him following his defeat to Alistair Darling in the live showdown.

Last night, bookmakers William Hill offered odds of 4/1 that Mr Salmond would stand down before the next Holyrood elections in 2016.

The plotting came amid renewed splits in the Yes camp with nationalist figureheads Jim Sillars and Dennis Canavan demanding a Scottish currency.

However, their guns may well have been spiked as Mr Salmond sparked a fresh battle for an independent Scotland to retain sterling, declaring: “It’s our pound and we’re keeping it.”

The SNP leader give his clearest hint yet this could mean using the pound without a formal currency union with the rest of the UK – an option known as dollarisation or the Panama option. He also repeated his threat that a breakaway country would refuse to accept its share of the UK’s national debt unless a deal was made.

But there was more embarrassment for Mr Salmond when it emerged that his own blueprint for secession contained a serious error in dealing with the currency for a go-it-alone Scotland.

Read more here:

Banks ‘could quit’ if dollarisation used post-Yes

Comment:

It is interesting that Mr Salmond keeps insisting that a break away Scotland will keep the Pound ,  this is known as dollarization or the Panama option,  (Panama uses the US Dollar as it’s currency) this would be known as de-facto or unofficial currency substitution,  The main UK parties have already said that there will be no sterling zone or currency union between England, Wales and Northern Ireland and a break away Scotland, despite this Mr Salmond insists that Scotland will keep the Pound and if he isn’t allowed to use the Pound,  an independent Scotland will not pay it’s fair share of the UK national debt,  a majority of international financial organisations including  France’s  Societe Generale  have stated  that any official or  unofficial currency union would affect Scotland greatly and if Scotland’s defaults on it’s international debts, Scotland would face  economic  hardship, Alex’s Salmond’s plans are economically incoherent, and Scotland with  the rest of the UK  forming a Sterling Zone isn’t an option. It’s interesting that using the Pound in an un-official currency union is known as the Panama option,  any student of Scottish History or British History will know  the results of what  happened the last time Scotland took a Panama option see The Darien Colony.

Tom Holland on our island story: what England and Scotland share politically and morally, New Statesman

Magna Carta and the Declaration of Arbroath, Boswell and Johnson, Walter Scott and Disraeli, Robert Owen and Keir Hardie – Scotland and England have long mirrored each other in many ways, says Tom Holland.

The Tarbat Peninsula, a spit of land sticking out from the northernmost Scottish Highlands, seems an unlikely spot for a revolution. At its tip stands a lighthouse, built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s uncle back in 1830 after a deadly storm in the adjacent Moray Firth; a few miles south lies the tiny fishing village of Portmahomack. Most visitors there today are tourists, attracted by its picturesque harbour and sandy beach; but back in the mid-6th century it was the scene of a momentous experiment.

A band of ascetics, wandering enthusiasts for an exotic new religion named Christianity, arrived at the court of a local king. Simultaneously intrigued and suspicious, he granted them some unwanted land on which to found a community. “The Haven of Saint Colmóc” – “Port Mo Chalmaig” – was the first ever monastery on the coast of Easter Ross. For 250 years, until it was destroyed by a terrible fire at the beginning of the 9th century, Portmahomack was one of the most celebrated places in Britain.

That it is impossible to be certain who either the king or “Saint Colmóc” was reminds us just how dark the Dark Ages can be. Various shocking details were reported of the people among whom Portmahomack was founded. It was said that they had come from Scythia; that they fought naked; that they were ruled by women who kept whole troupes of husbands. Most notoriously of all, they were reported to tattoo themselves: a barbarous habit that had led them to being nicknamed “Picti”, or “painted people”. A people more hostile to the norms of southern lands it would have been hard to imagine. Even the Romans had given up trying to tame them. Yet where the legions had failed, a hardy band of monks had succeeded. An outpost of Mediterranean culture had been successfully planted in the farthest north.

The coming of Christianity to Pictland was part of a much broader process that ultimately united the whole of Great Britain in a common religious culture. Pagan rulers, when they submitted to baptism, were rarely signing up to the poverty and pacifism preached by monks. What appealed instead was the awesome potency of the Christian God. Membership of the Church attracted those with broad horizons and a taste for self-enrichment.

Yet conversion to Christianity was never a one-way street. At Portmahomack, the missionaries were influenced by native customs, as well as vice versa. The tradition of holy men possessed of a privileged relationship to the supernatural was not unknown to the Picts. Even the tonsure worn by the monks derived from the Druids. The very stonework of the monastery was incised with patterns already ancient when the Romans had first arrived in Britain. The decision to become Christian did not, for the peoples of Pictland, imply surrender to an alien power. Rather, it reflected a creative engagement with the world beyond their various kingdoms.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Give us your Plan B, Alex': After TV debate humiliation, Salmond urged to come clean about his alternative to keeping the pound.

Successful partnerships or unions depend on give and take. Political unions provide for this. Money raised from taxpayers can then be transferred to wherever in the union needs it: in bad times and good, and over time. Our Union, as the UK including Scotland, has worked like that pretty well over the past 300 years.

Mr Salmond and his colleagues in the SNP are using the people not only of Scotland but the people of  the rest of the United Kingdom to serve their grandiose egos., 

“The best way to keep the pound would be through a currency union like today,” said Sir Martin Jacomb, former chairman of Prudential, and Sir Andrew Large, former deputy governor of the Bank of England. This is not compatible with Scotland being politically independent, and is therefore not on offer,”

'Give us your Plan B, Alex': After TV debate humiliation, Salmond urged to come clean about his alternative to keeping the pound. Daily Mail, Updated.

 Alex Salmond is facing an unprecedented challenge to produce a 'plan B' for an independent Scotland's currency in the wake of his disastrous TV debate with Alistair Darling.

The First Minister is being urged to finally come clean by business chiefs, top lawyers, economists, academics and senior members of his pro-independence campaign.

But a stubborn Mr Salmond refused to veer from his proposal to keep the British pound, resorting once again to a reckless threat to default on Scotland's share of the national debt if he cannot get his way.

The SNP leader was in bullish mood yesterday despite his performance in Tuesday night's TV showdown, which a snap poll found that former Chancellor Mr Darling had won by 56 per cent to 44 per cent.

Mr Salmond claimed: 'I think everybody knows now that we are in a real position of possible victory. We are the underdogs - I relish that position.' However, the First Minister arrived more than an hour late at a conference yesterday amid rumours that he had been holding a post-mortem with his advisers.

He also made an unusual appearance at the SNP's weekly group meeting in Holyrood in an apparent bid to shore up support, while Nationalists in the parliament were privately admitting they were disappointed by his performance. Now SNP strategists are desperate for more debates in the hope of a recovery, and a BBC showdown is now set to go ahead on Monday, August 25.

He has refused to draw up a 'plan B', such as a separate Scottish currency pegged to the pound, joining the euro, or using the pound unilaterally in the way that East Timor and Panama use the US dollar - socalled 'dollarisation'.

Last night, lawyers including Donald Findlay QC and politicians such as Jim Sillars joined a growing chorus of demands for an alternative to a currency union.

Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise - whose members include Lloyds Banking Group, RBS, Aviva and Standard Life - said: 'All of the currency options would have serious implications for the financial services industry and no analysis from any industry source suggests a currency union is likely. It would therefore be prudent for businesses to plan on the likelihood of a new currency or dollarisation.'

Read more here:

Further reading here:

No pound, no euro: With a vote on Scottish independence imminent, why Scotland needs a plan C

 

'You are really scrabbling around now!' Alistair Darling takes the fight to Alex Salmond in first live TV debate on Scottish independence

 

Tom Peterkin: Salmond causes frustration for SNP

SNP in crisis talks over Alex Salmond’s TV debate defeat

Scottish Independence 'Makes No Economic Sense', Warn Experts

Scottish independence: Salmond says 'we're keeping the pound' BBC News

VIEWPOINT: Why Alex Salmond is deluded... Vote against political union is also a vote against currency union By SIR ANDREW LARGE AND SIR MARTIN JACOMB. Daily Mail, Updated

Successful partnerships or unions depend on give and take. Political unions provide for this. Money raised from taxpayers can then be transferred to wherever in the union needs it: in bad times and good, and over time. Our Union, as the UK including Scotland, has worked like that pretty well over the past 300 years.

One element of a political union is common money, underpinned by a currency union. That’s why we all have the pound. The money we use matters to us all. It must be universally accepted in payment; prices must be stable. And crises like 2008 must not undermine it.

So Mr Salmond’s claim that if Scotland votes ‘Yes’ there will be no change for Scotland’s money is a delusion at best. A vote against political union is also effectively a vote against currency union.

The Scottish Nationalists think that the three political parties who rule out a currency union are bluffing. But why would the rest of the UK wish to support Scotland with their taxpayers’ money?

Claims that it is in the UK’s interests to continue the currency union forget the potentially open ended longer-term commitments: whatever the short-term trade benefits.

And to insist that Scotland would be stronger than the UK is not self-evident. The lessons are there in the European Union. The UK rejected the euro because we knew this needed political union.

The euro’s difficulties won’t be overcome until that can be achieved. It’s not there yet, and the lack of political union today prevents wealth transfers where needed: resulting in mass unemployment in Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Of course Scotland has other options. They all involve change, and risk. Scottish nationalists may feel the risks are worth it. But they need to know what they would be.

Scotland could continue to use the pound but with no formal agreement with the rest of the UK. Some small countries do this: Kosovo uses the euro, Panama the US dollar and Jersey the pound. 

The consequence for the Scots would be that they would have no say over monetary policy. The rest of the UK would issue the pound, and look first to its own interests, not Scotland’s.

Another consequence is that banknotes issued by Scottish banks could be in jeopardy. Today these are equivalent to Bank of England notes, but people might think otherwise if the bank was in a foreign country.

Mr Salmond could peg the Scottish pound to sterling. But Scottish taxpayers would need to build a multibillion pound reserve to defend this against speculators, to avoid what happened when the UK itself was forced out of the parity with the developing euro [ERM] as recently as 1992

Read more here:

Further reading here:

No pound, no euro: With a vote on Scottish independence imminent, why Scotland needs a plan C

 

'You are really scrabbling around now!' Alistair Darling takes the fight to Alex Salmond in first live TV debate on Scottish independence

Tom Peterkin: Salmond causes frustration for SNP

Senior SNP figures stick the knife into Alex Salmond after his disastrous showing in the TV indy debate

Scottish independence: Salmond says 'we're keeping the pound' BBC News

In 2003, Mr Salmond told me Scotland would be independent in 20 years. After that debate I doubt it By STEPHEN GLOVER. Daily Mail

 During the 2003 Scottish elections I found myself walking around the back streets of Dundee with Alex Salmond. He was not then leader of the Scottish Nationalists, though he had been, and would soon be again. I remember him as an amiable and rumpled figure.

At one of our pit-stops he said something that chilled my blood. He told me that in 20 years, if not before, Scotland would be an independent country. He asserted this so calmly and confidently that it was hard to disbelieve him.

I wonder whether Tuesday evening’s debate with Alistair Darling will mark the point when Mr Salmond and the rest of the world began to realise that his prophecy of an independent Scotland has been confounded, at any rate for a generation.

And I also wonder whether the debate might remind Labour that Mr Darling (still only 60) is a considerable but often underrated politician who in most respects stands head and shoulders above the party’s present leader, Ed Miliband.

 The debate had been billed as a contest between the wily, charming Mr Salmond, and the boring, bank managerish Mr Darling. Some supporters of the Union had had so many qualms about the former Chancellor that there had been private talk of replacing him with the more pugnacious John Reid, a Cabinet minister in the Blair administration.

In the event, though, it was the supposedly plodding Mr Darling who easily won the day. An instant Guardian/ICM poll after the debate gave him victory by 56 per cent to 44 per cent. It is hard to find anyone even in the Yes camp who thinks their man did well.

By the way, let me say how outrageous it was that the contest could not be viewed south of the border except online, and even then the picture was often interrupted. These two men were discussing the future of our country, Britain, and yet most citizens of the United Kingdom were excluded from the debate.

Read more here:

Further reading here:

We are the underdogs now, admits Salmond: Support for independence slumps after his TV mauling, Daily Mail

Plan B or not Plan B: Salmond rejects the question,  The Scotsman

Scottish Independence, a Vehicle for Alex Salmond's Grandiose Ego ?

First Minister Alex Salmond warns that without the pound an independent Scotland would refuse to take its share of UK debt and claims debate was a success for Yes camp.

Alex Salmond defends Plan B currency stance after losing Scottish debate on TV, Telegraph, Updated

First Minister Alex Salmond warns that without the pound an independent Scotland would refuse to take its share of UK debt and claims debate was a success for Yes camp.

Alex Salmond today continued to refuse to name his Plan B currency for a separate Scotland after holding a post-mortem discussion with advisers over his surprise defeat in the independence TV debate.

The First Minister arrived an hour and a half late at a conference for businessmen who support separation this morning, his first public engagement since he lost the STV showdown with Alistair Darling.

A defiant Mr Salmond defended his repeated refusal to name a Plan B currency if the remaining UK won't share the pound, despite being booed by the debate audience for dodging the question.

He even attempted to claim the debate had been a success for the Yes campaign, citing a snap ICM opinion poll that showed most Scots thought Mr Darling won the debate

The First Minister argued that a breakdown of figures revealed undecided voters gave him the victory and said support for independence had risen during the showdown.

But Unionist parties said he was clutching at straws after the figures showed that the support for the Yes campaign increased by only six voters during the debate, while backing for No rose by eight people.

Mr Salmond, who refused to take questions from the print press, pointed to another figure showing 74 per cent of undecided voters thought he had emerged victorious. The ICM breakdown showed this was the equivalent of only 23 people.

The First Minister also defended his repeated refusal to name a Plan B on the currency and warned that without the pound Scotland would refuse to take on its proportion of the UK debt after independence.

Read more here:

Further Reading here:

Scotland 'likely to be worse off after independence' Daily Telegraph

Independent Scotland's debt 'would force spending cuts or tax rises'

Analysts at Societe Generale said Scotland would have an “immense” task ahead of it were voters to opt for independence in next month’s referendum, disparaging claims from the “Yes” camp that the country would easily gain EU membership and grow rich off oil revenues.

A resounding 'no': the UK financial industry's verdict on Scottish independence

Kevan McDonald: Currency questions need answers, The Scotsman

Danny Alexander: Salmond stuck on pound question, The Scotsman

Scottish independence: Salmond says 'we're keeping the pound' BBC News

Independence referendum debate: Alistair Darling wins round one in televised clash with Alex Salmond, Daily Record, Updated

ALISTAIR DARLING won a shock victory
 in the first referendum TV debate 
last night as Alex Salmond came unstuck on the pound. The Better Together leader, an underdog before the start, hammered the First Minister relentlessly on the future of Scotland’s currency.

And when it was all over, 56 per cent of viewers surveyed in a snap ICM exit poll named Darling as the winner.The former Labour Chancellor had been widely expected to fall victim to Salmond’s feared debating skills.

But he put his SNP rival on the 
rack with strong attacks over whether Scotland would keep the pound
after a Yes vote.The bruising encounter early in the two-hour battle seemed to unsettle the First Minister, who went into the debate behind in the polls and knowing he needed a convincing victory.

Salmond rallied later to score strong points over Con-Dem welfare cuts, Trident and the Bedroom Tax.Darling also looked uncomfortable as the First Minister repeatedly challenged him to admit Scotland could be a “successful independent country”.

But the future of the pound – seen by many as the key issue in the race to September 18 – was Salmond’s downfall.

 

Read more here:

 

Further Reading here:

 

Yes Scotland ridiculed after issuing a guide telling supporters what to say on social media during TV debate 

“The Scottish Government’s own figures show a separate Scotland’s finances would be in a weaker position than the UK’s 2016/17 thanks to declining North Sea oil revenues. But the guide told supporters in bold type that “we will be in a stronger financial position in the first years of independence than we are today.”

Alex Salmond accused of a 'huge deception' over his plans for a currency union after a Yes vote

"Alex Salmond claims that nothing much will change, that threats otherwise are a bluff and that Scotland would keep the pound sterling - but although Scotland could keep using the pound, to promise 'no change' is a huge deception: the consequences would be enormous."

Alex Salmond And Alistair Darling Clash Over Currency In First Scottish Independence Debate. PA/Huffington Post UK

Scottish independence TV debate: First blood to Alistair Darling as he clashes over currency with Alex Salmond in televised Yes/No debate

FMQs: Alex Salmond defends independence pound plan

Duel that ignored the hard questions: MAX HASTINGS delivers his forthright verdict on last night's Scottish independence debate . Daily Mail

This was billed as the Great Debate between Scotland’s First Minister and the former chancellor and standard-bearer for the No campaign, Alistair Darling.

In truth it turned into the Big Silence night, with neither side confronting the real issues and harsh realities about the future of an independent Scotland.

Alex Salmond called on Scots to seize the ‘opportunity’ of independence with both hands. Alistair Darling urged them to reject it, but did not dare to say frankly to his audience: an independent Scotland will be Iceland without the fish, a dependency culture without visible means of support, a basket case bobbing on the remotest beach of Europe.

He had to renounce such arguments, because Salmond mocks the No campaign as ‘Project Fear’; because polls show that Scottish pride is affronted if anybody reminds them how meagre is their income tax base, how feeble is entrepreneurialism north of the border, how drugged on state subsidy their nation has become.

Salmond, one of the most skilful politicians in Britain, handled himself brilliantly. His pronouncements, from the Vladimir Putin school of statesmanship, are delivered with wonderful fluency, heedless of their polarisation from truth. He emphasised again and again the Norwegian model for an independent Scotland, saying nothing of the fact that Norway has vastly more oil and fewer people.

He flatly contradicted Alistair Darling’s assertion that Scotland could not expect to share a common currency with England, saying ‘everything will change in the negotiation if we get a yes vote’. He repeated doggedly again and again: ‘The pound belongs to Scotland as much as to England’, which means nothing.

Tactically, Darling was usually talking sense and Salmond nonsense, but the ex-Chancellor – perhaps the only man to have emerged from service in the Blair-Brown governments with an enhanced reputation – often seemed on the wrong foot.

Nowhere in the debate, whether from the platform, the floor or the so-called expert commentators, were hard questions asked about how Scotland would support itself as an independent country. Salmond asserted that the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies and Office for Budget Responsibility are simply arms of the Westminster government, which deceive Scots by noticing that the North Sea oil take is shrinking fast. He also rejected the IFS calculation that there is a £6billion black hole in SNP spending plans for an independent Scotland.

He spoke as if his country was Saudi Arabia, its only problem how to spend vast natural wealth.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

A pounding for Alex Salmond over currency in big TV debate

Rudd suggests SNP energy policy won’t meet needs

Independence: Fiery debate but no clear winner

Scottish independence essay: Say No to colony myth

'You are really scrabbling around now!' Alistair Darling takes the fight to Alex Salmond in first live TV debate on Scottish independence Daily Mail, Updated

  First Minister and ex-Chancellor take part in live two-debate on STV

  Voters to decide Scotland's fate in historic referendum on September 18

  New IpsosMORI poll puts No campaign on 54% but Yes campaign on 40%

  Up to half a million people are still undecided with just weeks to go 

  No campaign has received £2.6million, ahead of £1.5million for Yes camp

  Cameron, Clegg and Miliband sign joint declaration promising tax powers

Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling have clashed over their competing visions for the future of Scotland in the first live TV debate of the referendum campaign.

But millions of people trying to watch the historic head-to-head were dismayed after the STV website crashed under the intense demand from viewers worldwide.

In the early skirmishes, Mr Salmond repeatedly complained that independence was the only way to prevent a future Tory government while Mr Darling insisted Scotland was stronger as part of the UK.

As the political temperature rose, Mr Darling repeatedly accused Mr Darling of 'scrabbling around', claiming the First Minister has 'lots of good lines but no answers'. 

Voters in Scotland will make their big decision on independence in the historic referendum on September 18.

The No campaign has been consistently ahead in the opinion polls, despite months of intense debate, impassioned pleas and trading of facts and figures. 

One of the biggest threats to the Yes campaign has been growing doubts about the currency an independent Scotland would use

.

After ditching the idea of adopting the euro, the SNP has claimed it would enter a currency union with the UK and continue to use the pound.

But the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems have all made clear they would block a deal, whoever wins the next general election.

Mr Salmond came under intense pressure about how he would continue to use the pound, faltering repeatedly about whether he has a back-up plan.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

“The best way to keep the pound would be through a currency union like today,” said Sir Martin Jacomb, former chairman of Prudential, and Sir Andrew Large, former deputy governor of the Bank of England. This is not compatible with Scotland being politically independent, and is therefore not on offer,”

Record View: Big question still left unanswered after independence referendum debate