‘IN the past few days I have been travelling the country, speaking at more than 30 rallies and town hall meetings. Like so many of my colleagues in the Labour Party, I have been speaking not only in the major centres – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen – but also at meetings in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, the Borders, Midlothian and in Cowdenbeath, Kirkcaldy, Lochgelly and Dalgety Bay.

I have addressed the Royal British Legion and the Carmelite Nuns, visited schools and pensioners’ forums, and spoken at a joint meeting of the Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Muslim and Jewish communities in Glasgow.

I have shared my views, and I have listened to others. It is now time for me to sum up my case for a No vote on Thursday.

This Referendum is not a choice between Scotland and Britain, but a choice between two distinctive visions of Scotland’s future: a patriotic vision and a nationalist vision. Both are visions held by people here in Scotland, with two different views about how our country can progress.

The nationalist vision comes down to one proposition: they seek to break all constitutional connections with the UK. By contrast, ours is a patriotic vision of Scotland’s future. We are proud of Scotland’s history, culture and contribution to the world. We are proud of the Scottish Parliament we created and are committed to securing more powers for it. But we are also proud of co-operating and sharing across the UK for pensions, the funding of healthcare, jobs, the currency and interest rates. In each of these areas, Scotland benefits from being part of the UK. I have spoken recently about the NHS where, because of Scotland’s higher needs and the cost of providing services across one-third of the UK’s land area, we benefit from an additional £1 billion from shared UK-wide funding. Looking at pensions, Scottish OAPs receive £425 million more each year from being part of the UK pension system than a division of resources based purely on population would provide, and the benefit of this shared funding will increase to £700 million a year within two decades, as Scottish pensioners rise in numbers from one million to 1.3 million.

Nationalists say that to achieve social justice we should leave Britain. I say that the pooling and sharing of risks, rewards and resources across 63 million people rather than 5 million people, based on the principle of need rather than ability to pay, offers a far stronger reason on social justice grounds alone for staying part of the UK.

This year we remember how we enlisted, fought and sacrificed as one in the First World War one hundred years ago, and in the Second World War too. Recent terrorist threats remind us of a basic truth that both in wartime and in peacetime we are stronger in defence and security as part of Britain.

Almost one million jobs in Scotland are directly or indirectly linked to our membership of the UK. What’s more, 70 per cent of our exports are to the rest of the UK and in some large sectors like financial services, the figure is as high as 90 per cent. Scotland’s economy is not therefore comparable to that of Norway whose exports to Sweden – its largest neighbour – are less than 10 per cent of its total exports. Each side in this debate wants to keep the UK currency. But we believe that if we want to keep the UK currency, it is in the Scottish people’s interests that we are represented in the UK Parliament, Bank of England and Monetary Policy Committee.

And we now know that a “No” vote does not mean no change: the status quo is not on the ballot paper and the Referendum is a choice between Yes for separation, and No for a stronger Scottish Parliament within the UK.

The proposals which I outlined last week and which have been accepted by all the pro-devolution parties offer change that is better, faster and safer than anything the SNP can offer through an irreversible separation. It is the change that most of us want and change that can bring Scotland together’.