The SNP will say anything, do anything, to try and get what they seek

Tonight we will see a television debate between Alistair Darling and Alex Salmond.

With just over three weeks to go until 18 September it is an important moment in the campaign. But tonight’s two hours on television represents just one of the debates taking place across the country.

Around kitchen tables, in work places, in the football terraces and on trains and buses, the referendum is galvanising political discussion like never before.

People are in no doubt about the historic nature of the decision they face on 18 September. This is an irreversible, life-changing choice.

Over the last few weeks alone I have spoken in church halls, mosques and temples. I’ve taken part in packed town hall Q&A’s and held stump speeches in the rain outside shopping centres. People want to know more about the consequences of separation: what it would mean for their daily lives and for their children and grandchildren.

In the last TV debate Alex Salmond crumbled under questioning from Alistair Darling about his plans for the currency. On the fundamental issue of what money Scots would have in their pockets in a separate Scotland, the First Minister was left floundering without an answer.

Any eight-year-old can tell you the flag of a country, the capital of a country and its currency. We know the flag of an independent Scotland would be the saltire, we know the capital would be Edinburgh, but with the first postal votes dropping through doors tomorrow the nationalists still can’t tell us what the currency will be.

It is an extraordinary proposition for the Nationalists to ask people to vote on a decision of such magnitude – breaking up the United Kingdom – without the most basic information about how a separate Scotland would function.

After losing the last debate the Nationalists have decided to give up on trying to convince Scots with their bluffs on the currency. In desperation they have stooped to lies about our NHS by raising the spectre of privatisation. Let’s be clear: our NHS is entirely devolved to Scotland and the only person who could privatise it is the First Minister of Scotland, not the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

No matter that Nicola Sturgeon told her own SNP conference in April that the NHS could not be privatised, with their dream of independence slipping through their fingers, the SNP will say anything, do anything, to try and get what they seek.

While Alex Salmond claimed that he would ‘eradicate’ the private sector from the NHS, the reality is nearly five times as many patients are being referred to the private sector under this SNP government.

Our National Health Service owes nothing to Nationalism and will not be protected or advanced by nationalism. The greatest fear Scots should have about the NHS is how the Nationalists would find the £6 billion worth of cuts the independent Institute of Fiscal Studies has estimated that an independent Scotland would have to impose after a ‘yes’ vote. That is more than Scotland spends on schools, more than the entire budget for pensions and equivalent to half the current NHS budget.

And the bad news keeps on coming for Alex Salmond.

Last week saw perhaps the most important moment of this campaign so far.

Sir Ian Wood, the North Sea’s foremost expert, took to the airwaves to warn that the SNP are overestimating the amount of oil left by 60%. It leaves the economic case for independence in ruins. This was Alex Salmond’s Black Wednesday moment, when blind faith collided with cold hard fact.

Sir Ian said that he felt the need to enter the debate as he could not stand by any longer and allow our country’s future to be based on hopelessly exaggerated predictions and promises that simply could not be delivered.

It is the moment that the SNP must have dreaded. An impartial Scottish figure, independent of the two campaigns but with a reputation and a level of expertise that is beyond challenge, reluctantly, but forcefully tearing apart the nationalists’ claims about the North Sea’s future.

Where does all this leave the Yes campaign, with the first postal voters due to start casting their ballots this week?

Currency questions unanswered, economic case in tatters and desperation leading to misrepresentations about the NHS I doubt even they themselves believe.

Going into tonight’s TV debate, the Yes campaign cannot be a happy place.

In contrast, the millions of Scots who are voting ‘no thanks’ to separation are more active and enthused than ever before. Thousands of supporters, many of whom have never been involved in a political campaign in their life, are taking our message out to households and streets across the country. This is a movement rooted in the communities across Scotland energised by the everyday experiences of ordinary Scots.

In towns and villages the length and breadth of Scotland we are standing together to cast a patriotic vote for Scotland to stay as part of the United Kingdom. We take pride in the fact we have decisions about services like schools and hospitals made here in Scotland, with the strength of the UK securing our pound and pensions.

So tonight millions of us will tune in to watch the debate. But even more important are the debates taking place in our front rooms every day.

This is Scotland’s referendum, and the people of Scotland are making their voice heard louder than ever: We’re choosing to have the best of both worlds.‎ We’re saying ‘no thanks’ to walking away from our friends and neighbours across the United Kingdom.