Darling launches Scotland’s ‘No’ to independence campaign

25 Jun 12
Former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling has today formally launched the cross-party campaign for a ‘No’ vote in Scotland’s independence referendum.

By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 25 June 2012

Former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling has today formally launched the cross-party campaign for a ‘No’ vote in Scotland’s independence referendum.

Darling shared a stage with Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians and promised to wage a positive strategy under the banner ‘Better Together’.

‘Standing together with our neighbours is a positive good,’ he said. ‘All the pride and passion are not on one side.’ He called the campaign ‘one of the most important things I have ever done’, and said he wanted an ambitious Scotland with wide horizons.

But he also issued a litany of warnings about the negative consequences of independence, including a loss of influence in international forums, a ‘simplistic slogan’ in response to complex economic challenges and weaker military defences.

‘The choice we make will be irrevocable. If we decide to leave the UK, there is no way back,’ Darling said.

‘It is a gamble with your jobs, your business, your savings. We trade more with England than with all other countries of the world combined. Why would we want to turn our biggest market into our biggest competitor?’

Remaining in the UK, Darling said, afforded ‘the best of both worlds’, a phrase that has also been used by the Scottish National Party to describe its concept of an independent Scotland that retains social, institutional and currency ties to the UK.

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie promised that the campaign would match the passion and the commitment of those who supported independence. ‘In the campaign to keep our family together, we will work for every single vote,’ he said.

Today’s event, at Edinburgh Napier University, was in conscious contrast to last month’s celebrity-studded launch of the Yes Scotland campaign, with former Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie and Labour MSP Kezia Dugdale conducting on-stage interviews with a group of ‘real Scots’ who feature in a campaign video.

The campaign simultaneously began handing out half a million leaflets in Scotland’s streets and travel centres, and it has hired Blue State Digital, the media consultancy behind Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign, to run its website.

A key point of pressure for campaign leaders will be the demand that they spell out the extra powers they envisage devolving to Holyrood, a matter hey insist can be left until after the independence issue has been settled by the referendum.

An Ipsos Mori poll at the weekend showed 41% support for devolution with increased powers, against 29% for the status quo and 27% for full independence, with 56% wanting a second question on the referendum ballot paper.

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