While it is fair for the SNP and the Yes campaign to promote independence as enthusiastically as they want, including being selective about what they highlight, the SNP Government should be held to a higher standard. They should have set out in a balanced way the range of possible issues and outcomes in relation to independence, explaining the risks as well as the benefits, then making clear their preferred approach. The SNP Government has failed us badly, setting out to win at any cost, appearing happy to mislead us to try to win our votes.

  1. I believe that the ‘Scotland’s Future’ document that the SNP Government published in November represents a shameful use of public funds and Scottish Civil Service resources in producing something that should not be called a White Paper. Most of it should have been issued in a separate SNP Manifesto without Civil Service involvement.
  2. It is misleading for the SNP Government to suggest so much will stay the same when fundamentally they are seeking to break up the United Kingdom, which will change so much forever. It is misleading for them to mask their true intent behind a range of progressive policies and offers that are more appropriate for national elections rather than a Referendum about the irrevocable separation of the countries of the United Kingdom.
  3. After over 300 years of being successfully together through good times and bad, the SNP now propose that we turn our backs on our fellow countrymen and women. Not because we are oppressed, because we are not, but rather because the SNP pursue their nationalist ideology no matter the implications for the rest of us.
  4. The SNP Government suggest we get smaller and lesser in order to get better. How sensible does that seem?
  5. With their selective use of facts they try to show we will be better off financially. But they do not make clear that in part this depends on us gaining at the expense of the people of the rest of the United Kingdom. Simply put they suggest we take the great bulk of the oil and leave the great bulk of the debts, even though some of that debt arose from the need to save the Scottish banks during the recent financial crash.
  6. There is so much that we love about all parts of the United Kingdom, and the life we all lead together with people across the United Kingdom, just as much as we love the places, life and people of Scotland. Plus about half of the people of Scotland have family in other parts of the UK.
  7. Why does the SNP Government insist that to be Scottish we must turn our backs on the things and people that we love? Why do the SNP Government want to change who you are?
  8. The answer is that they are nationalists, and as nationalists they define themselves by what they are against.
  9. The SNP Government is against the United Kingdom and the people of the United Kingdom, that is the people of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and people in Scotland too if they are happy to be both Scottish and British.
  10. When it comes to the Referendum are you happy to vote like a nationalist?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Ordinary Man