Scotland’s fateful choice The case for union is overwhelming. The path of separation is a fool’s errand, The Financial Times

The United Kingdom ranks as one of the most successful marriages in history. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have survived ancient hatreds, tribal rivalry and war. Each nation has been enriched by a journey of enlightenment, empire, shared energy and enterprise.

In eight days’ time, this splendid mess of a union, to quote Simon Schama, the British historian, risks being separated into its national parts. Scotland will vote in a referendum to decide whether to stay in the UK or sunder bonds stretching back to 1707. Opinion polls suggest the result is too close to call, a prospect which has alarmed financial markets, wrongfooted allies and sent a complacent coalition government scrambling to find a last-minute sweetener to win over the Scots.

Empires and nation states are not immune to break-up, but there is little precedent for a hitherto stable modern democracy splitting apart in peacetime, in the middle of an economic recovery. This is not the time for recrimination. For the moment, it is enough for this newspaper to declare that the path of separation is a fool’s errand, one fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Scotland is a proud and vibrant nation. Scots have contributed disproportionately to the union. They have played a leading role in arts, commerce, literature, the military, politics and sport. But a vote in favour of secession would be an irreversible act with profound consequences, not merely for 5m Scots but also for the other 58m citizens of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (including 750,000 Scots living and working outside Scotland who under the terms of the referendum have no say on the future of their country).

The act of separation would diminish the UK in every international body, notably the EU. It would raise complex – and still unanswered – questions about the common defence of the British Isles, the future of the currency and political arrangements for the rest of the UK. Above all, a Yes vote would ignore the lessons of the 20th century, a chapter in European history indelibly scarred by narrow nationalism.

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Watch the ELIM100 Centenary Film Teaser of the film coming this Autumn. #Elim100 @Elim100org

Watch the ELIM100 Centenary Film Teaser of the film coming this Autumn. #Elim100 @Elim100org: Celebrate 100 Years of Elim at www.elim100.org

Ann McKechin: Alex Salmond and the SNP's tax policies will create more inequality in an independent Scotland, Daily Record

Sep 09, 2014 11:238 OPINION BY ANNMCKECHIN

ANN McKECHIN puts forward her view that the economic policies of the SNP will only drive an even greater divide between the have and have-nots should Scotland vote Yes.

SCOTLAND'S future will be decided in just a few days’ time when voters across the country go to the polls.

It’s clear that voters want change – they want to see more jobs paying decent wages and offering security; they want affordable housing; they want a social care system that is fit for purpose; and they want an energy market that works for consumers not the profits of big energy.

The Scottish National Party has been keen to persuade voters that breaking off from the rest of the UK would create a ‘northern light’ for social justice – a Scotland that is more just, more humane and more socially democratic. But their message is deliberately high in emotion but lacking in substance.

However, a Scotland which followed the policies outlined in the SNP’s white paper and ended the system of pooling and sharing resources across the UK would quickly find income and wealth would be more unequally distributed than in the country they wish to break up. SNP tax policies will astonish all those used to hearing the claim that, from the day after independence, it would recreate the social democratic state that London has left behind.

Let’s look at the recent evidence. The SNP has refused to commit an independent Scotland to Labour’s proposal for a 50p top rate of tax. It has also refused to support a new top band of council tax. The First Minister keeps telling top business leaders that he is not planning to change the rates of income tax or business from those that apply currently across the UK.

Independent Scotland won't pay back debt, Alex Salmond says

First Minister reportedly taunted the Westminster government over whether an independent Scotland should take on its share of the national debt, saying: “What are they going to do – invade?”

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