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Scotland and the Union

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It would be folly for us to even contemplate leaving NATO. We all need to remember that we are an island and that we need to be protected as such. It would be folly if the scenario that she painted were to come to light. As I said at the beginning, there is a school of thought within the nationalist ranks that North sea oil will be a panacea to all their whinges. If we scrape away the rhetoric and take a serious look at the economics, the figures do not add up. Well-respected financial experts, such as those at the Financial Times, warn that North sea oil revenues will dry up within the next 10 years, thereby placing a potential tax increase on Scottish people if they vote for independence and still aspire to retain the public service that they have now. That will not only impact on the Scots but could influence inward investment from other countries in the UK and beyond. This coming Thursday, there will be a choice. Scotland faces an historic decision: the choice between two very different futures. We must recognise that there is a lot to lose. The onus is on those who want to trade education for separation and economic stability for economic risk to choose between building up Scotland and breaking up Britain. The nationalist plans for independence come at a cost, and the people and businesses of Scotland will be asked to pay the hefty price. With economic policies helped along by ““fiscal fairy dust””—not my words, but those of the SNP enterprise spokesperson, Jim Mather—the SNP is asking Scots to trade in hard-won economic stability for a risky wager on declining oil revenues and a corporation tax cut that Europe could cut back.