First and foremost I'm a mum. I want my daughter and her children beyond her to live in a prosperous, inclusive, progressive, liberal, Scotland.

That word liberal is a bit of a giveaway, however. I've been active in Liberal Democrat politics for 30 years, since joining as a curious 15 year-old during the 1983 election. I'm a federalist and my views on how Scotland's governance should work were very neatly summed up by David Steel recently: "The principle of home rule is different from devolution. Under home rule, sovereignty lies with the Scottish people and we decide when it is sensible to give powers to the centre on issues like foreign affairs and defence."

I will be voting No next year. I don't doubt that Scotland could flourish as an independent nation but I think that we benefit from being in the UK. The union isn't perfect, but the way forward is to work on that inter-relationship, not ditch it completely.

That said, I have quite a lot in common with many people who support independence. In the main, we want the same things for Scotland and its people. We want to see an end to poverty, for everyone to have a decent place to live, accessible, gold-standard healthcare and an education system which gives our children the skills they need to excel in today's world. We want a Scotland where our growing number of older people play a respected part in society and are looked after with dignity and comfort.

Where we differ is on whether we need to be an independent country to do these things.  In fact, I believe that independence would hold us back from achieving some of these goals and I'll tell you why in the coming months. I want to look at some of the things I'm interested in like civil liberties, feminism, health, education and justice.

As a highlander, power concentrated in Edinburgh is as bad as power concentrated in London.  I worry about the SNP and Labour instinct to centralise anything that sits still for more than 10 seconds, depriving local communities of a say in shaping the services they need.

The referendum campaign gives us the opportunity to think about the Scotland we want to see and make it happen, whatever the result of the referendum. I'll be looking at the Liberal Democrat vision and showing how Willie Rennie has led the way in making the home rule case and, crucially, has made clear to the SNP that there is a place for them in the discussions after a No vote. 

Sadly, the debate so far has been mostly grumpy and fractious with occasional moments of inspiration. It's been full of spats about irrelevancies. Who cares if Salmond waves a saltire at Wimbledon? What else was he going to do?  I don't want to be sweating over small stuff when my husband's retiring in the year we would become independent. I want to know he'll get the pension he's worked for all his life.

We are capable of so much better. We argued for months about the referendum process and all it took to sort it was to put a couple of grown-ups in a room for a few hours to come up with the Edinburgh Agreement. Both Yes Scotland and Better Together need to up their game. Yes needs to appreciate that scrutiny is an essential part of the democratic process that they should embrace, not complain about scaremongering.

Better Together is desperately in need of some heart, though. Alistair Darling introduced some more diverse and inclusive language in his July lecture but it's not there yet. One word I would get rid of from their lexicon is the word 'patriotic', a word that turns politics poisonous. We can safely assume that everyone involved on either side loves Scotland and wants the best for our country.

Recent polls bring comfort to both sides. The truth is that nobody can be complacent this far out. Remember that George Bush Sr enjoyed an approval rating of 91% 19 months before he was beaten by Clinton. Our basic instincts of self-preservation should tell us that both sides need to conduct this campaign in an atmosphere of mutual respect. We still have to live with each other, whatever the result on September 18 2014 and beyond. We need a campaign that enthuses and thrills, tugging on heartstrings as well as dealing with complex practical issues. We can't afford too many more false starts.

I'm looking forward to engaging in some feisty, imaginative and illuminating discussion and reflection here on Herald Scotland over the next year.