For The Unionist

Big life changes are scary. In fact they can be very scary and the decision to vote yes for Scotland to become independent is not one to be sniffed at. I don't live in Scotland. However I've been following the referendum debate very closely over the last year. Every day tuning into the debate is a bit of a roller coaster. You never quite know what you are going to wake up to. Yesterday we came to another milestone 100 days to go. We are now in official count down mode, 99 days until we press the big red button that could see us jet off on our own or falter at the starting blocks.

I'm a yes. I'm a yes that doesn't live in Scotland and yet sometimes when I listen to the arguments I'm amazed by the lack of depth and insight that many No voters have. Just this morning on the BBC comments board one person stated they wouldn't vote for independence because an independent Scotland would keep the Queen. Really? That's the some total of the argument? I can only assume this comment came from a republican, who wanted to stay in the UK, a country completely devoted to the monarchy. Is a no vote really his the best choice? Not only that the same person said they are voting no because they wanted full land reform and they didn't think Scotland could deliver it. Talk about asking for the moon? These were two very bizarre statements. Like a child smashing up his toys because he wasn't going to get everything he wanted NOW. This person had clearly never looked over the fence to the other nation states of the UK, to find out there is no land reform. There is no chance of every getting rid of the crown estates. While in Scotland we have already passed laws protecting community land rights and are discussing dismantling the crown estate. Yet this person still wanted to vote no. Other conversations over the last few months have including a guy that wanted to eliminate free higher education, so that everyone had to pay for their own eduction and was happy to pay higher taxes to stay in the UK, without any of the Scottish perks. That's right this man was happy to pay higher taxes and additionally pay for his childrens' higher education in order to stay part of the UK. Others harp on about the referendum being a waste of money and that the money should have been spent on child poverty, as if Westminster austerity didn't exist. Then statements like 'nobody cares about independence'. I'm sorry? So why is it while abroad the first thing that almost everybody asks me about when they realise I'm Scottish is Scottish independence?

In between all these ludicrous arguments it's almost impossible to navigate the propaganda. The BBC are proven to be biased pro-unionists by the University of West Scotland. Only one Scottish newspaper has come our as pro-independence, The Glasgow Herald. While the British media as well as the UK's leading parties, now at a pace are beginning to engage with Scottish issues and perspectives. Three hundred years and now they want to get to know us better, then every so often the institutional racism bounds free. Yet the vigorous campaigns of individual Yes voters has been heralded as cyber-nats, suggesting that being passionate about independence is a bad thing and that Yes voters willing to pass comment must be one person using several hundred separate internet identities. There is also an ongoing campaign of retribution regarding Alec Salmond's character, smug being the word of the moment. I'm sorry, how are we describing David Cameron and George Osborne these days? Nobody would ever consider either of these two individuals smug, now would they? Then the complete misunderstanding of the Scottish National Party as a right wing party. The SNP are a left wing party, more left wing than Labour. I know that we can't always trust everything we read on the internet. However if you don't believe me maybe you might just want to take a quick read of the SNP wikipedia page. More than this Alec Salmond was part of the group that sought to make the SNP a Socialist party rather than a Social-Democratic party. Get that.It's not just the SNP either the Greens are behind a Yes vote too, though UKIP seem to be much higher up the Scottish polictical agenda, than the Greens contribution to our country. Was renewable energies all the SNP? I think not.

In the meantime the media continue to slag off the Yes campaigns and have no idea what to make of the Radical Independence Campaign, a campaign not connected to any leading party, that chooses to engage the most vulnerable populations in Scotland. Despite the official polls, the RIC are frequently posting there own polls from their door to door campaigning. Over the last few months of mass campaigning not once have the RIC posted figures that showed No votes out numbered Yes votes. Leaving it difficult to know who to believe. All the information leaves Scotland's future on a knife's edge.

The media support the No campaign's figures despite a lead professor from London School of Economics formally dismissing Westminster figures stating that they had entirely misrepresented his own work and research. Are we beginning to get a the picture now? We can take this dismission of Scottish financial future even further when we learn that prior to Alec Salmond taking up his political career he actually worked as an Oil Economist. I'll say that again, Alec Salmond prior to being politician was an Oil Economist, it factors that he knows quite a bit about Scotland's oil revenues and finances and might explain why he still lectures at Strathclyde University.

So to the unionist, all ask of you is to think about it? Think about it properly, consider the Union. What it is that you like about it? And of course there is plenty about it to like. Who doesn't like spending time in London? Who doesn't like the feeling of being part of the beating heart of the world? Who doesn't want to embrace the multi-culturalism and diversity that it brings? However it's not going to change, no one is going to take away England from you, nor Wales or Northern Ireland, they will still only be a hop skip and a jump away. You'll still hold a British passport, you're children will still be entitled to British passports. Maybe you experience duality of identity and feel unable to choose being Scottish over British or English? Maybe your experience of life is so intermeshed with being part of the UK you find it difficult to find the line where UK ends and Scotland begins. Maybe you think of the regions? What makes each of them special and Scotland thus not in a unique situation? Maybe you have family living else wear in the UK and feel that opting to live in a independent country from them is some kind of betrayal? Are you worried about immigration? Are you worried we can't make it on our own? Maybe you don't like Alec Salmond? Maybe you've never voted for the SNP? Maybe you're all for nuclear warheads? Are you frightened for rUK without Scotland's guiding political influence? These are not the questions at hand. The question is 'Do you think Scotland should be an independent country?' Just think about that and that alone. You've got 99 days to figure it out.