Campaign is cultivating the grass-roots

The laughter at him accusing the SNP of fear and smear – that is so blatantly hypocritical it is hardly worth rebuttal – and the disbelief at the blindness of someone who has spent his whole career in the world of Labour politics to what is actually happening today.

He calls for collective action by “Unison members – ideally nurses in uniform” in defence of the Union. I am married to a “nurse in uniform” and she, like many of her colleagues, will be voting Yes. Unions are there to represent their members, not to tell them how to think and what way to vote.

The penny has obviously not dropped for Mr McTernan that this debate cuts across all the existing structures of today’s society and takes the debate to the individual.

Independence is as much a campaign against centralised control and passing the voice back to the people and away from organisations such as political parties, unions and big business as it is about breaking up the UK.

Sovereignty and democracy lie with the people. Using unelected bodies such as unions and corporate entities to exert influence and control on the people is anathema to most in a democratic society. It is with this in mind that many are looking for the seat of power to move to Edinburgh, where politicians are closer to the people they represent and can break the stranglehold of the unelected entity.

The wonderful thing about this campaign has been that politics has returned to the grass-roots.

The re-engagement of the people will not go away in event of a No vote. People who have never been involved due to the hopelessness of trying to change a remote establishment and centralised control have seen a way where they can influence what happens to them and their environment.

Both sides of the debate have welcomed this development. The parties who think that, post referendum, they can return to a cosy world where vested interests can influence MPs who have never worked outside the structures of the political parties and are detached from the people they claim to represent, have another thing coming.

I would like to point out that I am not, nor ever have been, a member of any political party, union or political campaign.

Alan Rae

Saughtonhall Place

Edinburgh