If we're going to decide our future on the outcome of a televised debate then we don't deserve a vote.

I despair at the idea that people could be so shallow and stupid that they could cast a vote in the coming referendum on the outcome of Alex Salmond's performance in his televised debate with Alistair Darling and on whether we will use the British pound as a currency in an independent Scotland.

First, this referendum has absolutely nothing to do with Alex Salmond and the SNP. This is a decision on Sctland's future, not about Alex Salmond. He could drop dead tomorrow and the SNP could lose the election that would be held following independence, so what? We are talking about the future for our children and grandchildren, a future that, if we vote no, looks increasingly likely to be shaped after the next Westminster election by a coalition of the Tories and UKIP. If we vote for independence we are at least looking at a future that will be in our own hands.

This is a vote to rescue us from foodbanks, zero-hours contracts, the privatisation of the health service, bankers bonuses, withdrawal from the EU and the consequent loss of our human and employment rights that a withdrawal will entail. This is a vote to rescue us from a ruling elite that has a pathological hatred of working people, immigrants, trades unions, the disabled, the public sector. It is a vote to protect social security, to protect our pensions, to protect the environment. It is a vote to develop wind and wave energy, to secure our energy future free from oil and imported gas and most importantly, nuclear energy. This is a vote to stop us selling arms and torture equipment to foreign dictators and get embroiled in foreign conflicts that only continually make things worse. It is a vote to sever the slavish dependency on everything American, particularly the American economic model that has destroyed our financial system and enslaved us to its neoliberal imperatives. It is a vote to stop the sale of our most precious assets to foreign companies and to take control of such assets for the benefit of the Scottish people.

I could go on and on about the importance of September 18th but really despair that people can't see this for themselves. Such is the power of the poisonous propaganda from Better Together that we are reduced to deciding our future for the next thousand years on whether Alex Salmond messed up a completely irrelevant television debate. It's genuinely pathetic. You have been warned.

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat