ALISTAIR Darling yesterday distanced Better Together from the ugly clashes in Glasgow's George Square, insisting those involved were not connected to the anti-independence campaign.
Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, also expressed his "revulsion" at the scenes on Friday evening, when hundreds of Unionist No supporters, some with banners featuring loyalist imagery and some performing Nazi salutes, taunted Yes supporters and discharged flares.
Police said they made six arrests, including scuffles near Buchanan Street. Officers were forced to keep around 700 Yes and No supporters apart from late afternoon until around 9pm.
Asked about the incidents, Darling said the troublemakers were wholly unrelated to Better Together.
He said: "The people involved were nothing at all to do with our campaign. I've got absolutely no time for anyone who engages in any behaviour of that type.
"The people involved were nothing to do with us. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Any sort of behaviour like that we saw last night is simply not acceptable."
Around 1000 people are expected at a Kirk service at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh today. Politicians from across the parties will light candles at the service to symbolise a commitment to work together.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article