THE Daily Echo is going to Scotland in the battle to save the UK.

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham is taking dozens of copies of Saturday’s paper – in which we threw our weight behind the Better Together campaign – north of the border with him this week.

There are just nine days until Scots will head to the polls for the independence referendum on September 18  and the Daily Echo has joined the fight to convince our fellow Brits north of the border they are better off as part of the UK.

On Saturday the Daily Echo announced its support for the No campaign, with an exclusive survey of 500 people across Hampshire revealing an overwhelming 69.8 per cent wanted Scotland to remain in the UK.

Mr Denham believes that showing the newspaper to Scots will demonstrate how much English people want them in the Union and that it will have a big impact.

The Labour MP said: “One of the messages that came across very strongly from No campaigners was that a big factor for undecided voters would be if they see people in England want them to stay.

“I will be up there campaigning and it seems to me that if I take up some copies of the Daily Echo we can show people in Scotland that a good majority of people in south England want the Union to stay.

“People in Scotland want to know that people in England care. 

“Perhaps people have thought that we weren’t interested or bothered one way or another, but if people do know we care it could mean they vote against independence.”

The Daily Echo has decided to take a stand on the Union as we believe we are truly better together and that to throw 300 years of shared culture, achievements and history away would be devastating for the UK and Scotland.

Residents in Hampshire do not have a vote on September 18 but we believe it is important to let the Scots know we want them to stay before it is too late.

This newspaper believes the break up of the UK would also have financial repercussions that could lead to a huge bill amounting to billions of pounds.

The uncertainty generated by a poll at the weekend suggesting the Yes campaign has moved ahead for the first time led to the pound slumping to a ten-month low and provided a stark warning of the financial uncertainty that independence could lead to.

Pensions, mortgage rates and the UK’s influence as a leading nation are just a few of the things that could take a hit after a vote for independence.

More of Hampshire’s MPs today backed the Daily Echo’s campaign and have called on Scots to vote no.
Conservative Fareham MP Mark Hoban said: “I think that both Scotland and the rest of the nation would be impoverished if Scotland became independent.

“I think the Scots will have a safe and more secure future as part of the UK rather than if they go it alone.

“We have as a nation benefited from the talents of the whole country, our history has been shaped by people who lived in Scotland and their history is shaped by ours.

“We will lose the benefits Scots bring to us and they will lose the benefits the UK brings to them.”
Liberal Democrat Eastleigh MP Mike Thornton added: “I desperately don’t want the Scots to go. I want to remain part of the Union and I would be very, very sad if they did go.

“We have gained a lot from the Scots – just look at the number of Prime Ministers and Chancellors they have provided.

“It would be like losing a part of ourselves – it would be like losing your arm.”

Frenzy of nationalism they may regret

Daily Echo: Ian RitchieIan Ritchie, company director, from Chandler’s Ford

ENCOURAGED by the Daily Echo’s weekend feature on the Scottish referendum I am pleased that the debate has been brought south.

Although I only spent the first 11 of my 60-something years in Glasgow and have lived in and around Southampton ever since I still consider myself very much a Scot first and British second.

That said I have watched from afar the developing debate on devolution and place myself firmly in the Better Together camp, although, like countless hundreds of thousands, I am not entitled to vote.

If elections were won on rhetoric alone then Alec Salmond and the SNP would win hands down.

It is easy to be simplistic and argue heart over head, backed up by the proposition that the  underlying oil revenues will underpin every spending whim that the People’s Socialist Republic of Salmondia wishes to make.

I can understand the appeal of being in charge of one’s destiny but at the moment Scotland enjoys
both autonomy and the backup of being part of the United Kingdom.

In Mr Salmond’s world it seems no problem to reject that backup but to continue using the currency, which Scotland would only be able to do as a foreign country, therefore exposed to the Bank of England’s view on interest rates and the like.

And what guarantees could Scotland offer international lenders, when the currency is not backed by its own central bank? None.

One aspect seems to have been largely ignored. Apart from oil revenues how productive a nation on its own is Scotland?

It has an ageing population, Glasgow has the highest rate of unemployment in the UK, with almost 33 per cent of households where no one is in work.

Liverpool is second at 28 per cent.

So, if one third of households in the largest city in the country are not in work, with many claiming
the reason as being long term sickness, the social security and state subsidy bill is massive.

Over 20 per cent of those in employment work in the public sector. This percentage is likely to
increase if there is a ‘Yes’ vote as new state mechanisms will be needed to replace the ones currently operated from other parts of the UK such as the DVLA, the Financial Conduct Authority, the BBC, VAT & HMRC, to mention a few.

Compound this with the likely migration south of the head offices of many of the Edinburgh-based financial institutions and one could well see that public employment and the costs will soar.

To me that means that those in business and private sector employment will pay more in taxes, direct and indirect.

The ‘Yes’ manifesto includes a promise to cut corporation tax by three per cent, clearly designed to
persuade corporate business to stay based north of the border. But the big multi nationals who generate the real earnings all have significant (legal) tax avoidance schemes in place so that they pay their taxes in Luxembourg, Ireland or under even more benign regimes.

To argue that they would “save” three per cent by staying in Scotland is at best mischievous and at
worst just plain misleading.

What worries me as we come into the finishing straight is the reported harassment of ‘No’ campaigners.

We started to see this in the televised debates where Better Together statements were greeted with at best polite applause, whereas any statement for ‘Yes’ were met with rousing cheers.

One could not help but feel that the audiences were loaded (despite claims to the contrary) in the same way that every week on BBC’s Question Time whenever the left of centre view is expressed on whatever topic the majority of the audience clap and cheer enthusiastically whereas the right are often shouted down or their statements are met with silence.

The perception created is of course that the left are always right (if you’ll excuse the pun) and anyone disagreeing is in the “Posh Tory” camp.

We are now starting to see Better Together posters defaced or taken down, speakers being abused or shouted down in meetings and people who have declared their intentions being physically abused or insulted in social media.

That resembles more of a Third World rabble rousing election campaign than a sensible debate and decision over the break-up of an alliance that has stood the test of over 300 years.

Take the case of author J K Rowling, who is English, but has lived in Edinburgh for many years and has massively supported Scottish causes, in particular giving millions towards research into MS.

As a Better Together campaigner she has been roundly abused and an independent Scotland would almost certainly lose her and the investment that she has brought.

Most people reading this will be doing so in southern Hampshire and may conclude, if that’s what they want, then let them get on with it.

My view is that ordinary Scots people are being whipped up into a frenzy of nationalism, which may well come back to bite them sooner rather than later.

If I could give them one message it would be this: “Be careful what you wish for.”