You people just don’t get it, the penny just never dropped! We are different, we do things different and just look at the overwhelming success stories to date that the Scottish Parliament has achieved and more under Alex Salmond and the SNP!

Labour are looking very stupid and have nothing to offer people in Scotland, as are the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.

What progress have they made? …Er, none!
Bring on the YES vote! 2014 could not come quick enough for us jocks and the chance to get out and away from all things negative.

To address the above comment, I think Mr Podmore makes a common but unfortunate mistake. I do not wish to speak for him, but I don’t think Mr McAllion is endorsing the SNP, nor is his argument for independence an appraisal of their policies.

To confuse the SNP with the pro-independence movement means that disagreement with the day-to-day policies of the party or highlighting particular gaffes or actions by its members can lead to an outright rejection of independence, without actually considering the issue from a non-party political perspective.

Support for independence does not equal support for the SNP any more than support for the Union equals support for the Conservatives. Rather, independence is an opportunity for people in Scotland to have a full say on matters affecting them. People with different views have a variety of ideas about what an independent Scotland will look like, and by no means would the SNP be the sole voice in carving Scotland’s future. You may disagree with SNP policies but people of all parties and none would together shape the new society, democratically – unlike some believe Alex Salmond, for all his faults, is no dictator.

Although I do not personally identify as a socialist, I certainly consider myself left of centre and the argument that Scots can create a fairer, more equal society with complete control over its destiny is extremely compelling. I believe that with a great majority of Scots self-identifying as left-wing we could realise that vision.

After all, it’s not like the current arrangement, even with a potential Labour majority at Westminster, is making Scotland any more fair or equal. The devolved system has shown that Scotland can make itself more progressive and socially just – the policies of both Labour and SNP governments have shown that. It makes sense to cement that character and make Scotland the kind of society that Westminster rule prevents it from being.

The SNP government has funded Muslim schools, despite their poor record in producing pupils at ease in British society. The SNP has attacked pro-integration Muslims. In 2008, it gave the Scottish Islamic Foundation £419,000, while giving more moderate Muslim groups nothing. The SIF wants Islamic schools where children are taught the Koran, girls wear the hijab, and boys and girls are segregated. Its chief executive wants ‘a restored caliphate’ and defends Sharia law: he is an SNP candidate for Glasgow Central.

The SNP allies itself with Catalonia’s ‘pro-independence’ government, which distinguished itself in January 2009 by banning the commemoration marking the holocaust of Jews across much of Europe.

In 2007, Salmond said, “we are pledging a light-touch regulation.” In February 2008, he said, “the Scottish banks are among the most stable financial institutions in the world.” Then followed almost at once the failures of the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Halifax Bank of Scotland, when the British Treasury spent £38 billion bailing them out.

In August 2008, Salmond said, “I am certain that the RBS will overcome current challenges to become both highly profitable and highly successful once again.” On 19 January 2009, RBS reported a £28 billion loss, the biggest in British corporate history.

In September 2008, Salmond tried to blame HBOS’s woes on short-selling but Salmond’s theory was quickly discredited, as evidence emerged that the chief reason for HBOS’s demise was the extremely poor judgement of the bank’s senior officials in the mortgage market. According to bank insiders, it was the reckless actions of senior people in the HBOS management offices at the Mound in Edinburgh who placed the bank in such jeopardy. Scotland’s banks, far from building an independent Scottish economy, brought disaster.

One of Salmond’s closest allies, Jim Mather, enterprise minister since 2007, said in 2003, “We want more millionaires, and any notion that an independent Scotland would be left-wing is delusional nonsense … Most Scots have enough experience of left-wing policies to know that they only make matters worse.”

John McAllion ignores the important fact that the SNP is the most pro-EU political party in Britain. It wants ‘independence in the EU, a bit like wanting life in death. The SNP even wants Scotland to join the euro. How could Scotland safeguard its right to self-government in a European Union dominated by unelected entities which are acquiring increasing powers from national members?

The SNP is committed to membership of a continental federation where powerful cartels are intent on turning national Parliaments into conveyor belts for a uniform raft of policies. Inside the EU, especially if the SNP embraces the euro, Scotland would lose all semblance of economic independence.