Ignore all the misinformation

Another week nearer the biggest decision of our lives and the race couldn’t be tighter.

For the first time since last year a poll puts Yes in front, although a poll released on the same day continues to give the No camp the lead.

No matter what happens on September 18, things are changing, but one thing is remaining constant - lies and mistruths from the Yes camp.

I’ll start with last Tuesday during the televised debate.

Elaine C Smith claimed life expectancy in Shettleston was lower than in Kenya. This was shown up to be a lie. Not a mistake, an outright lie. While the average is still too low, it shows the depths the Yes campaign will plumb in order to win a yes vote.

Now I’ll give Elaine the benefit of doubt and presume, as she’s not a politician, she was fed that line by someone in the Yes campaign, although given she couldn’t name one redistributive policy an independent Scotland could introduce, she obviously wasn’t briefed too thoroughly.

The debate’s last Tuesday and Wednesday were obviously an improvement for the Better Together campaign than the Salmond-Darling debate the week before, but not content with claiming victory when the two figureheads clashed ,the Yes campaign have since been reduced to taking quotes from the former chancellor out of context.

“Alistair Darling says we can use the pound,” they cry. He may have uttered those words, but the context in which he said them have been deliberately distorted by the Yes campaign.

People need to understand that using the pound is not the same as a currency union.

It comes with horrendous risks of having no lender of last resort and creates extreme boom and bust economies.

You cannot build a fairer society on such flimsy foundations. We keep hearing we would not take our share of the national debt if we didn’t get a currency union, well, if that’s such a good option, why isn’t it plan A?

Not that a currency union is a much better option.

The Yes campaign love to claim No voters are “scared” yet they seem reluctant to actually have an independent Scotland stand on its own feet. The Bank of England have already told us a currency union would not work without giving up fiscal powers. The Governor Mark Carney was quite clear a currency union “requires some ceding of national sovereignty.” Perhaps the Yes campaign can tell us what they’re scared off.

If they truly believed in their vision, a separate Scottish currency would be their plan.

Moving on to the pieces in last week’s Reformer, I’m afraid the young Greek lad has been misinformed by his Yes friends.

He says Scottish children have been deprived from learning Scottish history down the years.

Unfortunately for the Yes campaign, education is devolved, and in fact the education system in Scotland has always been separate from the rest of the UK, along with Scot’s law and the church. Like in the case of Elaine C Smith, I’m going to assume Nikolas has been misinformed by those who should know better.

We can add these lies to the one Nicola Sturgeon told about having legal advice on EU entry. And to John Swinney’s whopper about already being in talks with the Bank of England on a currency union.

It makes you wonder what else they’re lying about in order to win their “more progressive society” (supported by tax-exile Jim McColl, anti-gay crusader Brian Soutar and, it would seem, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose flagship newspaper supported the current unpopular Tory Government.)

I’ll leave with a point on Wings Over Scotland, advertised by David Stevenson in last week’s paper. The Wee Blue Book, written by a man who seems to spend most of his time insulting those who disagree with him on Twitter, has been completely ripped to shreds by far brighter minds than my own, so I suggest readers check out the excellent Kevin Hague on his chokka blog to get the facts behind the fiction. There are other fine blogs detailing the No arguments such as those by Professor Adam Tomkins and Ian Smart as well as many more.

Thankfully, I’m confident the good people of Rutherglen and Scotland will see through the Wee Blue Book of lies, mistruths and distorted facts and stand by our brothers and sisters in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Yes would have us all believe that running away is the brave thing to do, but sometimes the bravest decision is standing by those who have stood by you in the darkest times. John Maxwell Name and address supplied.