ON September 18, Scotland must decide whether to remain within the United Kingdom or become an independent country.

No-one should find the decision easy. There is nothing simple, clean, or clinical about ending a union that has endured for better than three centuries. Nevertheless, having considered the arguments, the Sunday Herald sincerely and emphatically believes that the best outcome is a vote for independence.

We state our opinion not in an attempt to persuade our readers. That would be presumptuous and arrogant. We are well aware that there is good reason to assume the vote will be close. However, we are determined, as the debate enters its final, feverish stages, when emotions will doubtless run high, to make our position clear.

We believe that now is the time to roll up our sleeves and put our backs into creating the kind of society in which…

There has been a subtext to much of the coverage of the independence debate over the last three months as the London media has started to take a closer interest in what is going on in Scotland.  It has brought to the fore a latent tendency in much metropolitan commentary on Scotland to see the Scottish National Party as in some way a far right organisation hiding behind radical clothing.

Commentators like the Times’ David Aaronovitch and many of the contributors to the Guardian’s Comment is Free even say that Alex Salmond is really a clone of Nigel Farage – “two peas in the same hard pod” as the former put it.  This is because they are both nationalists and therefore base their politics on notions of race and ethnicity.   Salmond may SAY he supports more immigration, not less – but that’s just to dupe naive leftists in Scotland…