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Scottish Tory Party conference: Labour's Darling delivers pro-Union message | |
(about 13 hours later) | |
Former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling has addressed a fringe meeting of the Scottish Tory Party conference. | |
He was introduced by former Scottish Conservative Party leader Annabel Goldie and spoke in favour of keeping the Union intact. | |
The Tories and Labour are delivering the same anti-Scottish independence message. | |
Mr Darling appeared at the event organised by pro-Union group Better Together, which he is chairman of. | |
The people of Scotland will take part in a Scottish independence referendum on Thursday, 18 September 2014. They will be asked the yes/no question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?". | |
During his speech Mr Darling said he was confident the case against yes to independence could be won. | |
He emphasised his pride in being Scottish, but also his pride in being British. | |
"I don't want to choose, I want to be both," Mr Darling said. | |
The remark was similar to that of Scottish Conservative Party leader, Ruth Davidson, who used her conference speech just moments before to say: "I don't want to have to choose between two different parts of my identity." | |
Military communities | |
The presence at the conference of Mr Darling, who was chancellor from 2007 to the general election in 2010, was referred to when Conservative Party leader David Cameron made his keynote speech to delegates on Friday morning. | The presence at the conference of Mr Darling, who was chancellor from 2007 to the general election in 2010, was referred to when Conservative Party leader David Cameron made his keynote speech to delegates on Friday morning. |
He told those gathered: "We've even got Alastair Darling coming to this conference to say we're better together. | He told those gathered: "We've even got Alastair Darling coming to this conference to say we're better together. |
"When one of our conference darlings is a Labour MP - you know that this isn't about party politics. | "When one of our conference darlings is a Labour MP - you know that this isn't about party politics. |
"Because we all know that we're stronger together. Richer together. Better together." | "Because we all know that we're stronger together. Richer together. Better together." |
The theme of the Better Together fringe meeting focused on the British Army. | |
Mr Darling told the meeting that over the coming weeks, the pro-UK campaign group would visit military communities to discuss the importance of Scotland remaining part of the UK. | |
A new Better Together promotional film was shown for the first time at the event, featuring former members of the British Armed Forces and their families. | |