This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26071166

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Scottish independence: Seven months to save UK, Cameron says Scottish independence: Seven months to save UK, Cameron says
(about 1 hour later)
David Cameron has said the outcome of September's Scottish independence referendum is "still up in the air", and he could not bear to see the UK "torn apart". David Cameron has urged the rest of the UK to tell Scottish voters to reject independence saying he could not bear to see the UK "torn apart".
Pro-union campaigners had "seven months to save the most extraordinary country in history", the PM argued. Pro-Union campaigners had "seven months to save the most extraordinary country in history", the PM argued.
He urged England, Wales and Northern Ireland to tell Scottish voters: "We want you to stay." In an emotional speech, he spoke about his Scottish ancestry and said the debate was "personal" to him.
But the SNP said he was "cowardly" for not making the speech in Scotland. But SNP leader Alex Salmond branded Mr Cameron a "big feartie" for not agreeing to a debate with him.
In a speech in London's Olympic Park, the PM argued that the whole UK would be "deeply diminished" if Scotland opted to leave. Mr Salmond repeated his challenge to the prime minister to go head-to-head with him in a TV debate ahead of September's independence referendum, instead of lecturing Scottish voters in a "sermon from Mount Olympus".
Some people had advised him not to take part in the debate, he said. But Mr Cameron, who chose to make his biggest intervention in the referendum debate so far at the Olympic Park in East London, said he planned to make his argument in Scotland too.
"But frankly, I care far too much to stay out of it. This is personal," he added. He said he had chosen the Olympic Park as a venue for his speech because he wanted to send a message to people living in the rest of the UK, adding "all 63 million of us are profoundly affected" by the referendum.
Mr Cameron invoked the spirit of the Great Britain Olympic team, which won 65 medals in 2012, in a speech at the Olympic Park in east London. "That's why this speech is addressed not to the people of Scotland, but to the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We would be deeply diminished without Scotland.
"This matters to all our futures. And everyone in the UK can have a voice in this debate."
Some people had advised him not to take part in the debate, said Mr Cameron, "but frankly, I care far too much to stay out of it. This is personal".
"My surname goes back to the West Highlands and by the way, I am as proud of my Scottish heritage as I am of my English heritage.
"The name Cameron might mean 'crooked nose' but the clan motto is 'Let us unite', and that is exactly what we in these islands have done."
The PM invoked the spirit of the Great Britain Olympic team, which won 65 medals in 2012, in a speech at the Olympic Park in east London.
He said: "For me, the best thing about the Olympics wasn't the winning. It was the red, the white, the blue.He said: "For me, the best thing about the Olympics wasn't the winning. It was the red, the white, the blue.
"It was the summer that patriotism came out of the shadows and into the sun, everyone cheering as one for Team GB.""It was the summer that patriotism came out of the shadows and into the sun, everyone cheering as one for Team GB."
Listing UK-wide institutions such as the BBC, the NHS and the armed forces to the country's place in the UN Security Council, Nato and the G8 and cultural icons like Sherlock Holmes, Emeli Sande and Scotch whisky, the prime minister said: "We come as a brand - a powerful brand.
"Separating Scotland out of that brand would be like separating the waters of the River Tweed and the North Sea.
"If we lost Scotland, if the UK changed, we would rip the rug from under our own reputation. The plain fact is we matter more in the world together."
About four million people over the age of 16 and living in Scotland will be able to take part in the referendum, promised by the country's ruling Scottish National Party, on 18 September.About four million people over the age of 16 and living in Scotland will be able to take part in the referendum, promised by the country's ruling Scottish National Party, on 18 September.
Mr Cameron said: "This is a decision that is squarely and solely for those in Scotland to make. I passionately believe it is in their interests to stay in the UK. Alex Salmond took to the airwaves immediately after the prime minister's speech to accuse him of running scared.
"That way Scotland has the space to take decisions, while still having the security that comes with being part of something bigger." "I just want the prime minster to come and debate with me and stop being such a big feartie," he told the BBC News channel.
Scotland is "part of a major global player", the PM continued, adding that "all 63 million of us are profoundly affected" by the referendum. The reason the two men needed to debate "the pros and cons of his argument against independence" on TV in Scotland was obvious, he claimed.
"That's why this speech is addressed not to the people of Scotland, but to the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We would be deeply diminished without Scotland. "If I want to talk about, let's say the bedroom tax, and demand to know from David Cameron why he thinks the bedroom tax is a good idea to impose on Scottish people, nobody else can explain that - they can say they're against it as well, but David Cameron would have to explain it."
"This matters to all our futures. And everyone in the UK can have a voice in this debate." A spokesman for the pro-independence Yes Scotland campaign said: "To use the Olympic Games as a political tool shows that the No campaign and its leader are running scared and running out of ideas. The positive case for No clearly doesn't exist.
The UK is "a powerful brand" and Scottish independence would "rip the rug from under our own reputation", he said. "In September, we have a chance to put Scotland's future in Scotland's hands and ensure that we always get the government we vote for."
Mr Cameron added: "The plain fact is we matter more in the world together. There can be no complacency about the result of this referendum. The outcome is still up in the air." But a spokesman for the pro-Union Better Together campaign said: "Today the differences between the two campaigns became all too clear.
He urged people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to "let the message ring out" that: "We want you to stay." "The prime minister gave a speech about unity and people working together, while [the SNP] issued an excruciating statement that was dripping with the politics of division."
But Scotland's Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "This is a cowardly speech from a prime minister who uses the Olympic Park in London to give high-handed lectures against Scotland's independence but hasn't got the guts to come to Scotland or anywhere else to make his case in a head-to-head debate.
"David Cameron, as the Tory prime minister, is the very embodiment of the democratic case for a Yes vote for an independent Scotland - and he knows it."
She added that "using the Olympic stadium on the day the Winter Olympics begin and seeking to invoke the successes of London 2012 as an argument against Scotland taking its future into its own hands, it betrays the extent of the jitters now running through the No campaign.
"They see the polls closing and they are clearly rattled - but to politicise any sporting occasion is shameful."
Labour MP and supporter of the Union, Tessa Jowell, defended Mr Cameron's use of the Olympic Park for his speech, saying the venue helped to remind people how "we felt to be British".
Asked whether that was a feeling only among the English, she told BBC Radio 4's Today: "When the Olympic torch went through Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there was a sense of the UK being together, being proud of our British identity.
"We saw modern Britain and what it means to be British in the 21st Century over that summer in the Olympic Park."