Independence is a 'one-way ticket to send our children to uncertainty'

A vote for independence is like buying Scotland's children a one-way ticket to uncertainty, according to the leader of the pro-Union campaign.

The Better Together campaign to save the United Kingdom is being launched in a lecture theatre in Scotland's capital on Monday.

Campaign leader Alistair Darling, a Scottish Labour MP and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, has made what he describes as "the positive case" for keeping Scotland in the UK.

Mr Darling said the Better Together movement gives a voice to the "quiet majority" in the two years before the planned referendum on Scottish independence.

At the launch in Edinburgh, he said voters were being given a historic choice.

"Chairing this campaign is one of the most important things I have ever done in politics," he said. "The decision we make is the most important we will make in our lifetime.

"Those of us who believe that it is best for Scotland to be part of the UK, from whatever political views, have a duty now to work in harmony to argue for the better, stronger choice. This is a campaign that will make sure that the patriotism of the quiet majority to be heard alongside the voices of the committed view. We share a common platform on this single issue because, along with so many of our fellow Scots, we believe that a better future for ourselves and our children is as a partner in the United Kingdom."

With an independence referendum likely in 2014, Mr Darling said it was "make-your-mind-up time for us in Scotland".

The vote on Scotland's future was not like "voting in a government for a few years", he said. Instead, it was "about making history".

Mr Darling said: "The truth is we can have the best of both worlds: a strong Scottish Parliament and a key role in a strong and secure United Kingdom."

It was not that Scotland could not survive as a separate, independent state: "Of course it could. This is about what unites us, not about what divides us."

The vote on independence was a "chance to reaffirm Scottish values and our expression of them in our partnership with our neighbours", the former chancellor said.

"I believe we can cement Scotland's place in the United Kingdom once and for all and then get on with building the Scotland we want and deserve."

The campaign has engaged media strategists Blue State Digital, which helped bring US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande to power, to build a website and oversee its online strategy.

Better Together is distribute half a million leaflets promoting the social union between the two nations. The leaflets highlight the one in five workers employed by English firms in Scotland, as well as those working for the UK Government in places such as the Department for International Development offices in East Kilbride.

Another points to the 800,000 Scots who live and work in England and Wales "without the need for papers or passports".

"The choice we make will be irrevocable," Mr Darling has told campaigners at Edinburgh Napier University's lecture hall in Craiglockhart. "If we decide to leave the United Kingdom there is no way back. It is like asking us to buy a one-way ticket to send our children to a deeply uncertain destination."

Mr Darling, echoing the message of the campaign's brand strategy, argued that Scotland could have the best of both worlds: "A strong Scottish Parliament and a key role in a strong and secure United Kingdom," he said.

He said: "The truth is Scotland's future, our future and our families' future will be economically, politically and socially stronger as a partner in the United Kingdom. The truth is that this coming together of family, friends, ideas, institutions and identities is a strength, not a weakness. It is an ideal worth celebrating."

Better Together is distributing half a million leaflets at train stations from Fort William to Dumfries. A series of ten leaflets are be produced looking at different areas where Scotland benefits from being part of the UK.

The campaign is running full-page adverts in Scottish newspapers bearing the slogan "We want the best of both worlds": a distinctive Scottish Parliament and the strength of the UK through devolution.

However, the campaign was greeted on Monday morning by a poll showing that only one in five Scots supports the Union if the Conservative Party is in government at UK level. The survey, commissioned by the SNP, found seven in ten Scots do not trust the UK Government to take the right decisions for Scotland.

Opinion research company YouGov asked respondents two questions. The first was: "How much trust, if any, do you have in the UK Government in Westminster to take the right decisions for Scotland?"

The second was: "To what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement: It is better for Scotland to be part of the United Kingdom when there is a Conservative government in Westminster?"

The opinion pollsters found only 17% of Labour supporters believe Scotland is better as part of the UK when there is a Tory government. Some 28% of respondents said they had a great deal or a fair amount of trust in a Tory government to make the right decisions for Scotland, compared to 69% who do not trust them much or at all.

When asked if it is better for Scotland to be part of the United Kingdom when there is a Conservative government in Westminster, 20% agreed and 50% disagreed.

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