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Scotland and the Union

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Atkinson, in this debate on the Government’s policy towards the Union. It may have escaped your notice that there is an election going on in Scotland at the moment. It is not unnatural that in a debate on the Union at a time when a momentous decision on its future is to be taken in 48 hours we should focus on the choice faced by the people of Scotland. However, before I move on to that, I want to say one thing about Scotland’s position in the Union. Scotland helped to make the United Kingdom what it is today. The United Kingdom has been and continues to be one of the most successful countries in the world—and in the history of the world. If it were not for the ingenuity, drive, inventiveness and scientific genius of Scots, the United Kingdom would not have become what it is today. Scotland has played an invaluable part in creating this country, and I look forward to the next 300 years of Scotland’s membership of the Union. There is an important decision facing the people of Scotland, which has wide-ranging ramifications not just in Scotland and the United Kingdom but around the world. There could not be a more important decision. The debate this morning has been a microcosm of the entire election debate. When any difficult or detailed policy question is put to those who advance the idea of taking Scotland out of the UK, answer comes there none. Instead, those who advocate breaking up the United Kingdom wrap themselves in the Saltire, close their eyes, and say, ““If you just love Scotland enough, everything will be fine.”” Well, it will not. That simply will not do. When there are important questions on fiscal policy to be answered, why is the Scottish National party not to update its anticipated revenue from North Sea oil until July? It is an insult to the people of Scotland to go to the polls without giving them any idea about how much the SNP thinks it will get in oil revenue. That is calculated deceit of the people of Scotland, and the SNP should be ashamed of itself. As for monetary policy, when serious questions are put about who would set interest rates for an independent Scotland and what prevailing economic conditions would be taken into consideration in the setting of an interest rate, no answer comes from the SNP. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, North (Ann McKechin) set out the questions eloquently, but no answers have come from the SNP either in this debate or the four or five weeks of the election campaign.