Scottish referendum: accentuate the positive

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/09/scottish-independence-positivity

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The most important political event in Britain this year – by far and bar none – is just over four months away. The official start of the Scottish independence referendum campaign is itself now only three weeks off. Only those who live in Scotland will have a vote on 18 September – a decision many outside Scotland regret – and the campaign will therefore be centred there. Yet across Britain as a whole, the penny – or in the light of a report this week, maybe that should be the Scots merk – seems to have dropped that something enormously important to us all is at stake. In Wales and Northern Ireland there has never been much doubt that the Scottish vote would shape national futures too. Now a similar awareness also seems to be stirring in England. It has taken a long time for this to be grasped and many have still not woken up to the imminence and importance of what is happening. But the signs of wider debate and engagement are all to the good.

The early months of 2014 provided a powerful boost for the independence campaign. UK government warnings about currency problems, EU status and the future of the pensions system – all hugely serious issues – were successfully framed by the yes campaign into examples of English bullying and no campaign negativity. The result was a narrowing of the longstanding no campaign poll lead. At the start of 2014, the no lead was around 20 percentage points. Today, the average of the polls, according to the most objective source on these matters, is currently 45% for yes and 55% for no, a halving of the gap.

More recently, there have been signs that the swing towards independence has slowed. The yes campaign has made errors and attracted negative publicity. Neither Alex Salmond's profession of apparent respect for Vladimir Putin in a GQ magazine interview, nor his quip in the same interview about Scotland being a nation of drunks, has done the yes campaign any favours. Renewed doubts about the practicability of Mr Salmond's currency union policy have not helped either. It is premature to suggest that the yes momentum has stalled altogether, but no campaigners are feeling more confident than they were a month ago, when the mood was anxious.

Some of the unionist warnings have been heavy-handed. And some of the nationalist complaints about negativity have been exaggerated, even occasionally hypocritical. But the feeling that the tone of the campaign has become too abusive and too negative on both sides is widespread and justified, voiced even by the yes campaign's most enthusiastic financial backers. A new pro-UK campaign promising positivity complained only yesterday that it had been subjected to "virulent and nasty attack" by the shamelessly aggressive "cybernats" in the week since its launch. But some no campaigners have begun to dish it out too.

As both sides gear up for the long official campaign that starts on 30 May, it should not be too much to ask for the abuse levels to be reduced and for more positivity. If the nationalists can curb the abuse and the unionists put forward a more positive case, the upshot would be a better campaign – and perhaps one with a less antagonistic aftermath, whatever the outcome. In that spirit, it was good that Ed Miliband made another visit to Scotland yesterday, announcing that a UK Labour government would make further devolution a first-year priority if there is a no vote in 2014. The campaign for closer ties between the biggest English and Scottish cities that was announced this week is another better sign from the no campaign, too. It is inescapable that the no campaign should be negative about an independence proposition that they oppose. But there is a need for a positive unionist vision too, including a commitment from all UK-wide parties to participate in and prepare for the kind of post-referendum constitutional convention that David Steel and others have proposed.