HERE we stand on September 14, 2014.

Four days from now the Scottish people will go in droves to the polls and make perhaps the most important decision of their lives. They will be asked one question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Alone among this nation's newspapers, the Sunday Herald has answered it in the affirmative. Our reasons are straightforward, compelling and unequivocal. It is a matter of self-respect. We want to have mastery over our own affairs and be governed by those we elect.

We want democracy to be what it's meant to be, the means by which people collectively have a say in the society in which they live. We want to be a nation like so many successful others around the world, reliant on our own plentiful resources, responsible for our own actions. We want for the buck to stop with us.

It would appear to many of those who oppose independence that this is too much to ask. From the outset of this campaign, which has energised people throughout the country, the No camp has been characterised by its obdurate resistance to change. It has failed to show an alternative vision which might encourage those long repelled by Westminster politics to re-engage.

While the Scottish Government produced Scotland's Future, a prospectus which laid out its plans for the country under independence, Better Together wallowed in nostalgia and spread paranoia, calling in favours to protect the status quo.

The past week has shown how low those who would have us vote No are prepared to sink. When one opinion poll suggested there was a majority inclined to vote Yes, we were deluged with MPs, many of whom - as they dawdled up Sauchiehall Street - looked as if they'd alighted on an alien planet.

Had they been here before? In many cases, they had not. But they had been ordered to get on a train to save the Union. It reeked of cynicism, condescension and blind panic. It was also counter-productive.

Nevertheless, the Union, which commentators in the south had insisted was safe, may be days from extinction. Thus we have seen one "big" businessman after another warn of the dire consequences of independence.

How many arms did the Prime Minister have to twist for them to put their heads above the parapet when, clearly, many of them would rather have remained in their boardrooms? If we are to believe all we hear, we can expect the cost of everything, from baked beans to mortgages, to rise.

An independent Scotland, said a banker of whom no-one had heard, would cause a 1920s-style market crash. He did not mention a more recent collapse, caused by the likes of him.

Meanwhile, the media tried to bolster the naysayers. In the last week alone, Scots have been described as stupid, selfish and smug. That much we have come to expect from the ignorant metropolitan blethers, more concerning, however, is the attitude of the BBC, which we are told exemplifies what's good about Britain.

The BBC has shown its much-vaunted impartiality is a sham. Its bias is obvious in the manner that many of its reporters direct an argument and sum up discussions. This was exemplified last week when its political editor, Nick Robinson, insisted Alex Salmond had not answered a question about the Royal Bank of Scotland, when it was clear he had.

People are no longer willing to accept the writ of organisations and individuals which, in the past, they were happy to trust. Despite an almost constant bombardment of negativity and the testimony of so-called experts, support for independence has remained robust and continues to rise.

The fact is that the Scots are not stupid, selfish or smug. They are intelligent, streetwise, utterly engaged and concerned not only for themselves and their children but for people across the world who hope for a life free from fear of nuclear Armageddon.

That is what we at the Sunday Herald also seek. When we decided to back the Yes campaign it was not a commercial decision. It was because we believed it was right. It seems to us astonishing, in a country in which a significant proportion of the population supports independence, that the press is almost unanimous in its opposition.

Now comes the moment when we must look forward. Scotland stands on the cusp of history. How this generation acts on September 18 will mark this small country forever. The responsibility is huge but the excitement is infectious.

Should Scotland be an independent country? Of course it should, and it must. Vote Yes on Thursday and those who come after you will be proud to say that you were there at the rebirth of the nation.