SCOTS have an "obligation" to vote Yes, Nicola Sturgeon claimed yesterday, as she and other Yes campaigners gathered in Stirling to discuss tactics for the final push of the referendum.
The Deputy First Minister said Scotland had a "responsibility to vote for change" in order to address the social and economic problems created or ignored by the Westminster system.
The heightened rhetoric was in tune with the emerging Yes Scotland mantra that the country not only can be independent, but should and "must" be independent as well.
Yes Scotland strategists believe the first part of the message has already been absorbed by the public, with even die-hard unionists admitting Scotland can be independent, moving the debate on to whether it should be or not.
The next phase will see the Yes side arguing Scotland must be independent.
The pro-Union Better Together campaign said Sturgeon was commanding people how to think.
She was in Stirling for the first and only National Yes Convention, a gathering of senior campaigners from around the country aimed at raising spirits and exchanging advice on the best way to deliver a Yes on September 18.
Among those taking part were delegates from Dumfries and Shetland, as well as campaign groups such as Women for Independence, Business for Scotland, Radical Independence, Generation Yes, Academics for Yes, and the Scottish Socialists and Scottish Greens.
In a statement issued by Yes Scotland in advance of the event, Sturgeon said: "We have a great opportunity in Scotland for democratic advance - to vote Yes so that Scotland always get the governments we vote for.
"But we also have an obligation equal to that opportunity to ensure that the great wealth of Scotland benefits all the people - instead of being tied to a Westminster system presiding over one of the most unequal countries in the developed world.
"When UK Government welfare policies threaten to plunge up to 100,000 more children in Scotland
into poverty, when dependency on food banks has reached record levels, and when a Westminster consensus wants to waste £100 billion dumping a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons in Scotland, we cannot stand aside.
"We have a responsibility to vote for change. All political parties now agree that the status quo is past its sell-by date, but only a Yes vote in September delivers the powers and the changes that Scotland needs."
Speaking from a different text, Sturgeon later told her audience she was in "no doubt" that Yes would win the referendum, but the result would take hard work over the coming 95 days.
Last week Yes Scotland said "hundreds" of Yes campaigners would attend the convention, with campaign strategist Stephen Noon estimating 500 would make the trip to Stirling's Albert Halls. However, only 150 were at the opening session, leaving the floor of the hall half empty.
Yes Scotland chairman Dennis Canavan said the offer of more devolution from the Unionist parties was "too little and too late" and there was no guarantee it could be delivered.
He said: "This time next year there could be a Tory-Ukip coalition at Westminster.
"Does anyone seriously believe such an administration is going to deliver more powers for the Scottish Parliament? Dream on.
"There's only one guaranteed way to deliver more powers for the Scottish Parliament, and that is by voting Yes on September 18."
Referring to last week's support for the Union from Harry Potter author JK Rowling and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Better Together spokesperson said: "Yet again the nationalists show how out of tune they are with the people of Scotland.
"They've spent all week attacking inspirational women for having the audacity to disagree with them and now they are telling us that we have to do as Nicola Sturgeon commands us."
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