Yes short of unity

How predictable also was the counter-tactic of Alex Salmond? He gathers round him – for the first time – all of his associates for a public display of what? Unity? The No campaign is criticised because its proposals for further devolution are not all identical. What of the unity within the Yes camp? Dennis Canavan, the chairman of the Yes campaign, wants a new currency and also to raise taxes.

Patrick Harvie wants a new currency, to leave the oil in the ground and is anti-Nato. Jim Sillars famously branded the currency plans as “stupidity on stilts” and wants to join the EFTA, not the EU.

Blair Jenkins, chief executive of Yes, opposes the 3 per cent cut in corporation tax but wants to raise income tax. Compare any of that with the blueprint for independence – the white paper! And these are just a few examples of the unresolved contradictions.

A week from the vote and the voters of Scotland simply do not know what they are voting for. All that Mr Salmond can do is continue to try to trivialise this critical decision as something akin to a football match between Team Scotland and Team England; and to trot out the same old tired catchwords such as “scaremongering” when massive businesses and corporations pronounce they will leave an independent Scotland or that their companies will do better if we stick together with the UK.

This is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Scotland.

Colin Hamilton

Braid Hills Avenue

Edinburgh