It’s one year until Scotland decides – here’s 3 ways the SNP campaign is confused

Last night, to mark one year to go until Scotland’s referendum, I participated in a Newsnight debate on the banks of the Tweed, the river which marks the border between Scotland and England.

The venue was in sight of the Union Bridge, which spans the border and is just one very visible reminder of the strong connection that has existed between Scotland, England and the rest of the UK for over three hundred years.

This time next year, when people across Scotland vote in our referendum, they will be asked to make a very simple choice: whether to remain part of the United Kingdom, or whether to go our own way.

For over a year, the Scottish Labour Party has been making the argument that Scotland should remain inside the United Kingdom. We’ve done that in our own campaign, United with Labour, but also as part of the Better Together campaign. From the Nationalists, we’ve been attacked for joining with other parties, but the fact that we can put aside party politics for this one issue shows just how important it is.

Because we know that this isn’t a choice for the short term – it is a choice that generations of Scots will have to live with.

Absolutely none of us are arguing about whether Scotland could be an independent country, it’s a question of whether it should be. And I believe passionately that the arrangement we have in place across the UK today gives Scots the best of both worlds, where we have a strong Scottish Parliament – making decisions here in Scotland about Scotland – but protected by being part of the UK.

For those of us in the Labour Party that should be an easy argument to understand – that we benefit from pooling our resources, sharing risk and then benefiting together from the reward.

Being part of the UK has served Scotland well for over three hundred years, and Labour’s achievement in delivering devolution has made it even better. The question that people across Scotland need to ask themselves is whether or not voting for independence is worth putting this at risk. The SNP are asking Scots to make the decision on a wing and a prayer, with most of the big questions remaining unanswered.

There are three areas where the SNP have been mired in confusion since their campaign got under way last year.

Firstly, at a very basic level, they can’t tell us what currency we would be using in an independent Scotland. Economists agree that the currency you choose is one of the most important decisions you will ever make because it determines what economic levers are available to you. On last night’s Newsnight debate, the panellists on the Nationalist side couldn’t even agree what option they would choose. What’s even more absurd is that Alex Salmond has gone from calling sterling “a millstone round our necks” to embracing it as his preferred option, even though it would mean Scots’ interest rates would be set by the Bank of England, by that time the central bank of a foreign country.

Secondly, at a time when people the length and breadth of the UK are worrying about their jobs, the SNP have failed to spell out what effect their plans would have on employment in Scotland. The business benefit of being part of the Union is clear: one in five Scottish workers are employed by companies that are based in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and we continue to export more to the rest of the UK than the rest of the world combined. What workers could expect after independence hasn’t been spelled out.

Finally, as Scotland faces an ageing population, the SNP haven’t provided any answers about how they would fund our pensions. In his leaked memo to the Scottish Cabinet, the Scottish Finance Secretary, John Swinney MSP, admitted that they didn’t know how the state pension would be funded, but in public they continue to provide assurances to Scotland’s older people. Similarly, even when they were under pressure earlier in the year from the Institute for Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) with a list of detailed questions, they weren’t able to provide the answers.

These are just three areas where the Nationalists have failed to provide any detail, but the same is true of defence policy, the affordability of renewable energy in a separate Scotland or even our membership of the EU. The least that people across Scotland deserve are straight answers to these basic questions.

I’m hopeful that a year from now, Scotland will vote to remain part of the United Kingdom, not just because it makes economic sense, but because we value everything that we have built together over the past 300 years. However, I’m not complacent and I know that we have a fight on our hands to convince every last voter of our case. It is a daunting campaign, but also one of the most exciting I’ll ever be part of as, I hope, we begin to write the next chapter in the story of partnership between the nations of the UK.

Margaret Curran MP is Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Labour MP for Glasgow East