I am Question 1 at Scottish Questions today at 11.30 in the Commons

If the Secretary of State will give guidance to the Smith Commission on ensuring that its proposals do not hamper cross border trade with the North of England.

In 7 days Scotland will decide - what are you doing to help save the Union?

Next Thursday September 18th I shall be in Scotland helping to Get the Vote out. I will also be there earlier next week - although I have a variety of meetings in Prudhoe on Tuesday, and in Slaley and Stanley, County Durham on Wednesday morning, that I cannot avoid or change. I will certainly be travelling up to Scotland most evenings next week to campaign in the Borders.
I have been many times these last 18 months: some examples are here from two Saturdays ago: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/north-east-analysis/analysis-news/hexham-mp-guy-opperman-heads-7713615
and here: http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/better-together-embraces-all-parties-to.html
Sadly this weekend I cannot go to Scotland as I have a family wedding to attend. However, others can go and lend a hand:

The Better Together website is here: http://bettertogether.net/blog

Two contact details for Northumberland people of any political persuasion or inclination, who want to help, in the Borders, which is less than 80 minutes from Hexham:

John Lamont MSP - whose Hawick office is

25 High Street
Hawick
TD9 9BU

Telephone: 01450 375 948 [ask for Ross]
Or the Better Together team HQ in the borders

	Flora McCaul
Contact Phone:	07891103122
Location:	Better Together South of Scotland Office (Galashiels, Scottish Borders) 2 High St Galashiels, Scottish Borders TD1 1SD

Good to see the Party Leaders making the case to the Scots that they are wanted

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband are combining forces and heading to Scotland tomorrow to make the case for the UK. They have cancelled PMQs. Here’s their joint statement:

‘There is a lot that divides us – but there’s one thing on which we agree passionately: the United Kingdom is better together.

That’s why all of us are agreed the right place for us to be tomorrow is in Scotland, not at Prime Minister’s Questions in Westminster.

We want to be listening and talking to voters about the huge choice they face.

Our message to the Scottish people will be simple: “We want you to stay.”

The evidence from Canada's referendum 20 years ago when Quebec thought about leaving is that the rest of the country needs to be passionately making the case to the undecided nation that they want them to stay. I will be doing this myself in the days leading up to the Referendum next week. 

The Scottish Referendum just got closer but the positive case for the Union is still strong

I have made many trips north of the border these last 18 months debating the Scottish Referendum, urging the Scots to say "No thanks", and making the positive case both for the Union and the fact that we, who live in the Rest of The UK, want the Scots to stay. Most recently I was in Hawick [with a team of 14 like minded southern based locals keen to help make the case for the Union] but before that I was in everywhere from Aberdeen to Argyll, Dumfries to Perthshire and many places in between.
As always close to election people worry, but it was ever thus, and you just have to keep campaigning, keep making the case, and worry not too much about the media. I will be going back north of the border in the last few days to help Better Together team get out the vote. In reality, like all elections this will be a numbers game and turnout on the day is key. If any of my constituents south of the Border want to do more then they can contact me and I will direct them as to where we are helping or they can contact Better Together direct  - their website is here: http://bettertogether.net/blog/entry/no-borders-between-our-young-people-and-opportunity

The crucial day will be 17th and 18th September. Any locals wanting to help on the 18th should get mark it out in their diary.

August 25 for Round 2 of Darling v Salmond debate - live for all UK on BBC

Round 2 of the Darling v Salmond debate will take place on Monday August 25 – details still to be decided. The debate will be on BBC and available nationwide – and that means the UK not just Scotland: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28722263

There is no doubt that Darling won the first debate, and that Salmond seems ever more desperate. His argument on the pound is unravelling. If he wants independence then he can have it – provided the Scottish people agree. But with independence comes a different currency. It is that simple. Last week’s suggestion by the SNP that Scotland is more predisposed towards ‘social justice’ than other parts of Britain is frankly absurd, and embarrassing. I hope to continue our campaign to maintain the Union and that ultimately Scotland will say “No thanks”.

Is an independent Scotland entitled to keep the Pound as is?

If Salmond wants independence then he can have it – provided the Scottish people agree. But with independence comes a different type of currency. It is that simple. We debated this at length in the House of Commons – see the debate here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2014-02-12a.292.1&s=%28scottish+currency%29+speaker%3A24962#g302.2

The key section of the debate is as follows:
- "On what basis would Scotland get to keep the pound? Would it be used informally, just as some Latin American countries, Greece and Montenegro use other currencies?
- Why should the Bank of England take notice of Scotland in setting monetary policy?
- Why should the Governor travel to Edinburgh and be interrogated by Scottish MPs in such an event?
- After independence, surely the Governor would owe his appointment entirely to a rest-of-UK appointment system?
- At that stage, would the First Minister come to London seeking an audience to negotiate?
- when one goes through Mark Carney’s speech and looks at the currency options, it would seem that the SNP proposes to keep the pound as part of a formal sterling currency union agreed with the rest of the UK. However, the SNP seems not to have contemplated the fact that that would involve giving up huge amounts, as Mark Carney made very clear, as well as requiring the agreement of all other parties. The SNP seeks independence but would require and accept greater control by a third party."
Many more details on the debate in parliament at the link above.

It's the Darling V Salmond debate tonight but only in Scotland / online

It is debate time tonight at 8pm live on STV. For the non Scots based you can still watch online. I shall be watching. No one underestimates Alex Salmond but I simply do not believe he has answer to the many arguments in favour of the union = the best of both worlds.
On the economic, military, European, healthcare, banking and pensions issues I believe that the SNP are unable to prove to the Scottish people that they would be better off alone. More importantly I believe that the message is getting through to the Scots that we who are south of the border are genuine in our desire for them to stay. We are better together, and having beaten everyone from Napoleon to Hitler together, I want this wonderful United Kingdom to remain and thrive individually and collectively.

Do debates matter? Ask Texas governor Rick Perry, who was a much-fancied contender in the 2011 race for the Republican nomination before he bombed spectacularly on air in a live pre White HouseTV debate. He withdrew from the race shortly afterwards. Similarly in the first US presidential TV debate in 1960, Republican nominee Richard Nixon famously lost out on the presidency after many thought he appeared sweaty and shifty next to a polished and confident John F Kennedy.
At the last general election I remember very well the packed debates in Hexham abbey, which definitely made a difference to the many who were there. On any interpretation this is the biggest debate in Scottish history.

Fuller details of the debate and the implications / stakes here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28607002

If anyone wants to come on our bus to help save the union on Saturday August 30 please email me on guy.opperman.mp@parliament.uk
I shall be going north in the morning from Newcastle and Hexham and have privately rented a bus to take everyone, but obviously need to know numbers if at all possible. We shall be going to Jedburgh, Galashiels and across the Borders area persuading Scots who have a postal vote (which land on their doorstep around that day) that we are better together. If you want to come in your own car, and can carry others, then also please let me know. This is a cross party trip, so all are welcome - I have already campaigned with many liberals and labour politicians in Scotland, and in Westminster, on this issue. The state of our country is at stake.

Tuesday August 5 for the Salmond v Darling TV Debate

Alex Salmond will go head-to-head with Alistair Darling in a televised debate on Scottish independence, STV has confirmed. Broadcaster STV said a debate between Scotland's First Minister and Mr Darling, who leads the pro-Union Better Together campaign would take place on August 5. This I will want to see - we are Better Together.
Update:
Bizarrely it has been announced that Scottish TV will not show this debate in the rest of the UK. So the rest of us can not be involved or informed. This gets stranger by the minute.

Question Time this evening is politician free - all about Scottish Independence

At 22:35 tonight BBC is bringing ‘Question Time’ from Inverness, featuring a panel with no politicians – instead there will be campaigners from both sides of the Scottish independence debate

Trying to show the Scots we want them to stay - more action by Better Together on the border

Anne Marie Trevelyan, the Conservative candidate for Berwick on Tweed, and Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Borders, are both passionate Unionists and are both doing what they can to make the Scots stay.
On Saturday July 19th Anne Marie is leading the Border Union Rally along the Scottish Border from Carter Bar to Kirk Yetholm: Full details of what will be an amazing day out and a great hike here:
 http://www.borderunionrally.com/

Similarly my colleague in the House of Commons, Rory Stewart MP is behind the project to create a Cairn on the border at Gretna, starting on Sunday July 20: as he writes:

"Right on the border, in a field at Gretna, we are inviting families from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland to bring stones and build a great cairn. Stone cairns have been built in Northern England and Scotland for millennia, to celebrate a sense of shared space. Together we hope to construct a striking and lasting testimony to the Union.
We will begin the project on Sunday July 20th and continue every day thereafter, for the following eight weeks and hopefully beyond. We would always love to hear from anyone who is coming, but we also want people to feel they can just turn up and make their mark."
For my part I will be campaigning in Scotland repeatedly between now and September 18.
I urge locals to get behind both projects. The simple question is this: what are you doing to save the Union?

Better Together embraces all parties to keep Scotland as part of the UK

This photo was taken as part of the latest campaigning trip to Aberdeenshire, Fife and Perthshire: it was taken by a key Labour activist, and features councillors from several different parties, and myself - as we came together to make the case for the Union. I was in the village of Dunning and we canvassed all the village finding 80% in favour of the Union. What was noticeable was the cross party goodwill on a very important subject. If you want the ultimate embrace of alternative parties then look no further than the impassioned and eloquent plea of George Galloway MP at the recent Spectator dinner: extracts from  the speech I set out below:

  

‘We are people together on a small piece of rock with three hundred years of common history, and that’s what they want to break up. This is the first time ever that people in a small country, where everyone speaks the same language are being asked to break up, and break up on the basis that they don’t have a currency to use. There will be no pound.’

‘The difference is we have come together temporarily at a moment of national peril. The nationalists on the other hand are permanently together for they have only one purpose, to persuade you that Brian Souter, the gay-baiting billionaire, funder of their campaign, is someone more worthy of looking up to than J.K.Rowling.

“I am tired of being called a quisling, or a traitor…I’ll go wherever I like in these islands or anywhere else and speak my mind. There’ll be havoc if you vote yes in September, havoc in Edinburgh and throughout the land, and you’ll break the hearts of many others too. Who wants to mortgage their, and their children’s future on a finite resource that will soon be finished and the price of which is simply incalculable?’

‘They want you to re-fight a battle seven hundred years ago between two French speaking Kings with Scottish people on both sides. I prefer to remember a rather more recent battle…If we had not stood, but capitulated, like others had done before us, we’d be having this meeting this evening in German, if we were going to have it at all.’

Bless JK Rowling - she believes we are Better Together!

Author JK Rowling has made a £1m donation to help fund the campaign against Scottish independence.

The writer of the Harry Potter books, who lives in Edinburgh, has publicly backed the Better Together campaign.
Explaining her decision on her website, Ms Rowling said there was a "denial of risks" within the "Yes" campaign.

She also said there was a "fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence".
She added: "My hesitance at embracing independence has nothing to do with lack of belief in Scotland's remarkable people or its achievements. The simple truth is that Scotland is subject to the same 21st century pressures as the rest of the world. It must compete in the same global markets, defend itself from the same threats and navigate what still feels like a fragile economic recovery."

"The more I listen to the 'Yes' campaign, the more I worry about its minimisation and even denial of risks. Whenever the big issues are raised - our heavy reliance on oil revenue if we become independent, what currency we'll use, whether we'll get back into the EU - reasonable questions are drowned out by accusations of 'scaremongering'".

Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27793967

Better Together - dozens of Scots I spoke to last week agree but only 100 days to go

Both sides in the Scottish independence debate are marking the milestone of 100 days to go until the referendum. It is increasingly clear that Salmond and the nationalists are running out of time. The voters I met last week agreed we are better together - about which I will blog in detail over the next few days. 

The referendum will be held on 18 September, with voters asked the Yes/No question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Opinion polls show a decent majority favour the Better Together pro union campaign but we still have many people still to make up their minds either way. Last week it was clear that neither America nor Europe want Scotland to go independent. More details here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomgallagher/100275242/why-europe-and-america-dont-want-an-independent-scotland-run-by-shape-shifting-alex-salmond/

In Scotland on a long planned trip to help Better Together campaign

I am in Scotland today helping the Better Together campaign team across Scotland as part of a short 3 day trip making the case that we are better together. My normal campaigning ground is over the Border in and around Jedburgh and Galashiels, but on this occasion I have been helping and knocking on doors and helping making the case for Better Together in Aberdeenshire, Perthshire and Fife.
My views are well known but I set them out below in brief:
http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/six-months-until-scottish-independence.html

PM making the case for Better Together in Scotland today

Pleased that the PM is making the positive case for the Union today in Glasgow. BBC Report is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27414810

Westminster this week

Busy week with Bills to be finished, training for Women to Win, constituents coming to the Commons, and a key meeting with Ruth Davidson, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives and one of the key architects of the Better Together Campaign which is trying to save the Union.
On Tuesday I have a series of meetings with various of the key UK ambassadors at the Foreign Office, including the new Falkland Islands Governor.
On Wednesday we will be welcoming the Energi Coast and Subsea North East team of businesses to Westminster, led by several of my Tynedale businesses who are genuinely transforming the economy in the North East. The work of PDL and others is the unknown success story of our local economy.  

British Chamber of Commerce survey finds Rest of UK Firms strongly in favour of Scotland in the Union

Yesterdays survey of 2400 English, Welsh and Northern Irish firms showed that they don’t want Scotland to quit the UK, according to a poll.
A total of 85 per cent say they are opposed to independence, the British Chambers of Commerce survey revealed.

If Scotland goes Independent why would the rest of the UK act as their banker of last resort?

S and P, the independent credit agency have pointed out the inconvenient truth: Scotland will not be able to afford its banks, and would have a credit rating worse than Iceland.

When Iceland's three biggest banks collapsed in 2008, the country's depositor guarantee scheme was unable to repay hundreds of thousands of UK savers who had billions of pounds in high-interest accounts such as Icesave. Lloyds and RBS have already expressed concern about the risk of a credit downgrade in the event of a yes vote. "The impact of a yes vote in favour of Scottish Independence is uncertain," Lloyds said in its annual report, adding that it could affect the cost to the bank of complying with regulations and its tax position.
When it published its results in February, RBS said: "A vote in favour of Scottish independence would be likely to significantly impact the group's credit ratings and could also impact the fiscal, monetary, legal and regulatory landscape to which the group is subject. Were Scotland to become independent, it may also affect Scotland's status in the EU."
Vince Cable, the business secretary, waded into the debate in February when he said that a yes vote would make it "inevitable" that Royal Bank of Scotland would relocate from Edinburgh to London. "If you were managing RBS, I think you would almost certainly want to be in a domicile where your bank is protected against the risk of collapse," Cable told the Commons business committee. More details here:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/23/scotland-independence-agency-rates-scottish-banks

Oh, and by the way Alex Salmond came to Carlisle last night to tell us everything was going to be fine. He wants independence but nothing will change.....

SNP tell me that Scots Referendum is none of my business - I disagree: we are Better Together

Comments on the blog and elsewhere to my face - often in robust terms - maintain that I, as a British, but English MP, have no say, concern or right to an opinion on the Scottish Referendum debate. I strongly disagree and continue to make the case for the Union in person last week in the Borders, at events and on the doorstep, and on this blog and in the media. Almost most importantly Scottish Independence will have an affect on my constituents in Northumberland in a multitude of ways.
But us unionists have to accept that according to recent polls, the lead over the independence camapaigners has shrunk to three percentage points.

The ICM figures are
- No 42 per cent
- Yes 39 per cent
- and ‘don’t knows’ 19 per cent

If the ‘don’t knows’ are discounted, the figures are Yes 48 per cent and No 52 per cent.

Put simply it is going to be very close. There is also no doubting that the Yes campaign has the foot soldiers on the ground. I will be making monthly trips over the border to Scotland over the next 5 months to independence day and would welcome anyone along who wants to help. There is only one way to win campaigns - talk to the voters. And I do believe there is a role for English based MPs, and English Unionists in
- identifying the supporters,
- convincing the doubters,
- telling the Scots we want them to stay
- and helping get out the postal vote in late August / early September, and on the day itself.
For more details on my position see here: http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/six-months-until-scottish-independence.html

After Scots independence our armed forces will be very different - on both sides of the border

Last year I went to Faslane Naval Base in Argyll - around 8000 people work there at the submarine and naval defence base there. Upon independence this would not stay in Scotland. I spoke to locals in the picturesque seaside town of Helensburgh where 1 in 2 work on the base: they were terrified of the impact of independence. One local put it simply:"it would kill the town" he said.

And so many similar questions need to be asked:
- What would become of RAF Lossiemouth or Leuchars?
- And why would the rest of the UK ever build a ship on the Firth of Clyde again, instead of Portsmouth or the Tyne?
- And the Scottish regiments?
Salmond says he will keep some on but in what role and in what army? And doing what? Are they to be purely ceremonial?
Con Coughlin puts in well recently in an article on this difficult issue:
"An independent Scotland would be required to renegotiate its relationship with Nato, just as it would with the EU. But given the SNP’s deeply ingrained aversion to nuclear weapons, it is unlikely an independent Scotland would be welcomed into the Nato fold, particularly if its total military contribution amounted to a handful of warplanes and the odd frigate. Other small Nato nations, such as Norway and Denmark, which actively participated in the air campaign against Colonel Gaddafi in 2011, boast fleets of 60 F-15 warplanes or more, and have no hang-ups about maintaining a deterrent.

Even so, if the SNP’s defence plans are patently risible, they nevertheless have the potential to inflict enormous damage on the rest of Britain’s military capabilities, with no tangible gains for the Scottish people. How could the rest of the UK hope to protect the Northern Approaches from Russian incursions if it was denied access to vital early-warning systems and bases for quick-reaction sorties? The answers to this and many other questions relating to our security matter as much to the Scottish people as they do the rest of the British Isles, and they are worthy of far deeper consideration before the Scots vote for a potentially tragic break with one of our nation’s most illustrious institutions."
Full story here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/10767952/Scotland-is-the-bedrock-of-Britains-defences.html