‘Too wee and too poor’ was the Better Together campaign’s message, says Lord Forsyth

FORMER Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth has savaged the Better Together campaign, claiming it told Scots they were “too wee and too poor to run their own affairs”.

Speaking on the second anniversary of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the Tory peer slammed the pro-Union side’s tactics and said he was “astonished” their mistakes had been repeated by the Remain camp during the Brexit campaign.

In a BBC documentary, Nicola Sturgeon – who was on the losing side of the 2014 poll – also slammed her opponents’ negative strategy, claiming: “I could have made a better fist of it.”

But Better Together leader Lord Darling hit back, arguing the SNP was ducking tougher issues and obsessing about the constitution.

Asked about the pro-Union campaign, which won the independence referendum with 55% of the vote, Lord Forsyth said: “It was absolutely appalling, I was regularly telling George Osborne to stop running a negative campaign, to stop telling Scots they are too wee and too poor to run their own affairs.

“And stop telling them they couldn’t have the pound.

“We started off in that campaign with only 28% supporting independence and we ended up with 45%.

“The thing that astonished me is that they used the same playbook in the Brexit referendum, with catastrophic results.”

When asked if she would have been more worried about a less negative No campaign, Miss Sturgeon admitted she would have feared a No campaign that talked about “the great things about being British, a positive No campaign.

“That is the campaign I think we would have been much more troubled by, but they never ever got their act together.”

Speaking on the BBC Two documentary Scotland And The Battle For Britain, to be aired at 8pm tonight, the First Minister said: “I could have made a
better fist of it than those who ran the No campaign.”

Asked about the prospects of a second referendum, Miss Sturgeon said: “I think an independence poll is likely and the logic is that it comes about in the period before the UK leaves, but we don’t know when that is going to start.

“We don’t know if that two-year period will both see the UK leave the EU and negotiate its new relationship, or whether that two-year period will be just for Brexit.

“So there are so many unanswered questions for the UK right now.”

Lord Darling said: “When you think about it, if you spend three years telling people the answer to everything is
independence, you’re not going to give up on that.

“You are not going to say the day after, ‘oh well, we’ll try something else’.

“I just wish we could channel some of that energy into dealing with some of the problems Scotland has got.

“Children of low-income backgrounds still don’t get to university in Scotland. What sort of indictment is that in the second decade of the 21st Century?

“Constitutional questions are sometimes easier to debate than doing things that might actually make a difference to people.”

DAVID MUNDELL has confirmed he is committed to maintaining a successful financial services industry in Scotland amid reports the UK Government is preparing for a hard Brexit outside the single market.

The Scottish Secretary dismissed reports by Bloomberg that Chancellor Philip Hammond was ready to accept Britain would have to give up membership of the single market to stem European Union migration as “speculation”.

And the Tory cabinet minister also attacked Alex Salmond’s “contemptuous” prediction that a second independence referendum would by held by 2018.

Mr Mundell said the former First Minister’s rhetoric suggested that his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, was not “totally committed to a second referendum” and that Mr Salmond was trying to “force her hand”.

He said: “Since he departed from the Scottish Parliament he has been persistently a thorn in Nicola Sturgeon’s side.

“It is quite clear that his current remarks are an attempt to force her hand.”

ALEX SALMOND has said the next Yes campaign needs to be more open about the policy choices for an independent Scotland, including currency.

The former First Minister said any future pro-indepedence campaign needs to list all of the currency options open and “should not be frightened of listing options of genuine policy choices that an independent state might wish to pursue”.

Writing in a pro-independence newspaper, he said: “Indyref2 can’t just be the same.

“As Leicester seem to be finding out in the Premier League, you can’t just roll out the same tactics and trust them to be as effective as before.

“Of course the Scottish Government should again publish a White Paper with comprehensive detail on the way forward.

“However, this time our prospectus should not be frightened of listing options of genuine policy choices that an independent state might wish to pursue.

“To take a personal example, our presentation on key issues such as the currency should be much more like that which I laid out in the second [TV] referendum debate, rather than the first!”

Tory leader Ruth Davidson led a day of anti-independence street stalls across Scotland yesterday and said: “There is no justification to drag us back to an argument that belongs in the past.”