Be more real with pro-uk message, says Carmichael

THE pro-UK message to Scots ahead of next year’s referendum needs to be “more real to people’s everyday lives”, Alistair Carmichael said yesterday.

Mr Carmichael was appearing before the Scottish affairs select committee to discuss the fifth UK Government analysis paper on the macro economic impact of Scotland leaving the UK.

Answering a question from Labour Airdrie and Shotts MP Pamela Nash, he said: “You touch one of the challenges of this paper and it is something on which I will be focusing, how do you make this real to people in their everyday lives? Because you are right, we aren’t.

“The challenge is always there with macro economics. You are talking big figures and big pictures, but bluntly put, being part of the UK means that you have an access to jobs and you have job security and that is greater than it would be if you were not part of the UK.”

Mr Carmichael turned his fire on the SNP Scottish Government for saying one thing in public about the prospects of an independent Scotland and another in private.

He highlighted recent revelations that the Scottish Government had been advised it would have to raise taxes or cut public spending to create an oil fund, but had not made that information public. He described it as “a shame” and “outrageous”.

But an SNP spokesman said “Scots buy £47 billion of goods and services each year from the rest of the UK which support a great many jobs in the rest of the UK. It is silly to think the government of the rest of the UK would put those jobs at risk. It would be better for everyone if trade were to continue.”