THE heads of the respective Yes and No campaigns clashed yesterday for the first time on a student hustings in Edinburgh.
The chief executive of Yes Scotland, Blair Jenkins, asked whether voters would choose to join the Union with England if Scotland had been independent for the past 300 years.
For the first time he was up against a Better Together counterpart, Blair McDougall, and others representing different constitutional outcomes.
The event was organised by the National Union of Students, at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, and featured the Devo Plus campaign and the Future of Scotland group, who are in favour of an additional option on the ballot paper.
Mr Jenkins asked: "Suppose the Act of Union had never happened, Scotland was still an independent country and the vote we were taking in two years' time was not on whether we should leave the Union but on whether we should join it.
"In that scenario, what would be the case for the Union? Your main Parliament will move hundreds of miles away and your MPs will be in a small minority. You will have a Government you didn't vote for.
"You will hand over all your oil and gas revenues to the London Treasury. The biggest nuclear arsenal in western Europe will be based on the River Clyde, 30 miles from your largest city.
"An austerity budget will be imposed from London, cutting jobs and threatening public services, instead of Scotland being responsible for raising and spending its own taxes. You will join a country whose health and education services are rapidly being privatised."
A spokesman for Better Together responded: "It seems that those campaigning for a separate Scottish state are interested in every question except the one that actually matters.
"The SNP have been waiting for this moment since they came into being. They believe in breaking up the United Kingdom. What is stopping them from asking the people of Scotland if they agree with them?"
Former Liberal Democrat MSP Jeremy Purvis argued from the Devo Plus group for more devolved powers within the UK.
Martin Sime of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations spoke on behalf of the Future of Scotland alliance which wants the issue of a second question in the referendum kept open.
He said: "My contribution was to encourage all students to get involved and for all options to be kept open for the referendum. I argued that Yes/No just doesn't cut it. I would say in the contest between 'Better Blair and Yes Blair' they came across well."
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