Quintin Jardine's blog

The Electoral Commission’s recommendation last week on the wording of the question that will go on the ballot papere for the referendum on Scottish independence prompted remarkably little debate. We are now to be asked  simply ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ This change was accepted without argument or debate by the Scottish Government, which had intended to ask ‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’

Did the governing party expect a more radical alternative, rather than hair-splitting? Was that why Nicola Sturgeon was so quick to agree?  She’s not going to tell us, but I suspect that was the case.

I suppose that one question is as good as another. To me the words on the paper are not the issue; it’s the unspoken question that each voter should ask that counts, the one I’ve asked myself already. ‘Are you Scottish first, British second, or vice versa?’ Me? I’m a true Scot, born, bred and brought up in an ancient nation. As such, I do not want the major decisions that affect my life, and the future path of my nation, on economic policy, taxation, defence, foreign relations, and  institutional regulation, to continue to be taken by a majority elected in another country to a parliament that sits hundreds of miles away.

For the next eighteen months we are going to be fed scare stories by one side and bullshit by the other. None of it matters to me. I’ve answered my key question, without the help of the eminent former controller of BBC Scotland and his commissioner colleagues. Having done so I feel that it’s my duty to vote ‘Yes!!!!”