Yes vote can make Highlands a powerhouse - Blair Jenkins
WITH only 21 days to go to the polling stations opening in the independence referendum, the Yes and No campaigns are turning up the heat in their final efforts to win your votes. This week frontmen Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling went head-to-head in the second national TV debate. And the Highland News Group asked each side to put up a leading North figure to put their case to readers.
Elgin-born Blair Jenkins, Yes Scotland chief executive, responded:
IN just a few weeks’ time, the people of Scotland have the opportunity to change their future. With just a cross of a box on September 18, we can provide ourselves and our children a brighter, more positive and prosperous future.
Decisions about the future of Scotland are best made by the people who care most about Scotland – the people who live and work here.
Unlike Westminster, when we vote for our first independent Scottish parliament in 2016, we’ll be guaranteed the government we vote for.
The people of Scotland have the greatest stake in making our nation a success. That means we are more likely to make the right choices for our society and our economy – and to make decisions that allows us to use our vast wealth for the better of the people living here.
Scotland has what it takes to be a successful independent country. We have contributed more tax per head than the rest of the UK in each of the last 30 years. An independent Scotland would be among the 20 wealthiest countries on earth.
Our strength in renewable energy, food and drink, life sciences, tourism and higher education all supplement our good fortune in being the European Union’s largest producer of oil and gas.
With a Yes vote, we will be able to use our vast wealth and resources to make Scotland a wealthier and fairer place to live.
Our businesses will benefit from economic policy being designed in Scotland and we’ll all benefit by being able to properly protect and invest in first class public services, including our NHS and education system.
We’ll also benefit from investing in a “rainy day” oil fund that provides security for the future.
The right to a free education will be enshrined in our written constitution, and the people of Scotland will continue to be able to go to university based on their ability to learn, not their ability to pay.
We can create a fairer welfare system and we can take action to tackle rising energy bills and ensure that benefits, tax credits and the basic rate of tax allowance always keep up with rising living costs. Young families will see an increase in childcare provision with all three and four year olds entitled to 1,140 free hours per year and this will be extended by the end of the second parliament.
We can bring the Royal Mail back into public ownership, ensuring fair delivery charges in rural areas, and remove immoral and expensive Trident nuclear submarines from Faslane.
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We can ensure that the state pension increases by at least 2.5%, or in line with the cost of living or earnings, as part of a “triple-lock” protection. Scottish Government plans would see new pensioners receiving £160 per week under the single tier pension – around £5 a week or £260 per year higher than as part of the UK.
The Highlands and Islands can be a powerhouse with a Yes vote.
The North-East and the Highlands and Islands will be represented by a quarter of members of an independent Scottish parliament, compared to only 1% of parliamentarians at Westminster.
With a Yes, we’ll have the powers we need to maximise the Highlands and Islands’ massive untapped economic potential, our renewables resources and our geographically important position in emerging Arctic trading routes. Westminster has never and will never put the Highlands first.
Westminster isn’t working for Scotland and the Highlands and Islands. We can choose to go down a different path: to make sure important decisions about Scotland are made here in Scotland – not by Tory governments we didn’t vote for.
On September 18, the people of Scotland will answer the most important question of a generation: should Scotland be an independent country? I believe that it is best for Scotland to vote Yes.
