So here we are - a few days away from the most historic vote in Scotland's history and the British establishment and Westminster have finally woken up to what is going on here.

Their complacency, laziness, ignorance and focus on themselves has been blown apart and now we are being offered everything that should have been on the ballot paper at the start of this. That question was wanted by the Scottish Government, but the Tories said "no way".

And now we have the sight of a former Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, riding in to save the Tories, the British State and his seat in the House of Lords. This is the same man who presided over the biggest financial crash in history and who supported the war in Iraq.

So we have the powers that were already on offer, repackaged with a timetable from a man who isn't in government and a promise that if Labour get elected they will implement them. What next? Some clubcard points and a timeshare in Majorca if only we vote No?

A No vote for me will be saying to the public-school Oxbridge elites who run everything from the House of Lords to the judiciary, the City, the media and beyond: "Carry on boys (and it is largely boys), on you go - you just keep running things your way for your pals and your own self-interest and we will just get to the back of the bus and keep quiet."

As a member of the advisory board of the Yes campaign for two years and chairman of the Scottish Independence Convention for almost 10 years, a campaigner along with thousands and thousands of others for a Scottish Parliament, let me say that I'm not representing any political party. The Yes Scotland campaign is made up of many different parties, groups and individuals all represented here today. This is not a vote for the SNP, or Alex Salmond - or a vote for the White Paper. I think that even the most diehard unionist has had to admit that this campaign has been a wonderful advert for true democracy - better than anyone on the board of Yes Scotland could have imagined - a thousand flowers have blossomed.

However, I want to say here and now a massive thanks to the SNP and all those campaigners out there today, as well as many who sadly have not lived long enough to see this day, especially the likes of Margo MacDonald and Jimmy Reid, who worked tirelessly for decades to bring us to this place … this magical place.

For indeed we are at a special place in our history … where we as a nation will vote on our future. We as a nation have taken the time to debate, discuss and envision the type of country we want to live in … the type of country we want for our children and grandchildren.

I have never subscribed to the notion that people weren't/aren't interested in politics. The excellent Power Commisssion report, headed up by our own Baroness Helena Kennedy and set up by the last Labour government (though sadly ignored) found that people were indeed passionate about issues that affect us all but completely disillusioned by the way they were dealt with. They felt that power didn't lie with them and that voting meant very little.

Independence for Scotland will not mean that the arguing and debating will stop. We will continue discussing the needs and aspirations, the creativity and the ideas of the people of Scotland on these islands and in a changing world. A Yes vote is the start of us all stepping up to build something better.

I do not doubt the sincerity of those in the No camp or those who have yet to make up their minds.

But I do not believe that Westminster can or will ever deliver for the people who need it the most.

What independence offers us is a chance to create a real democratic parliament with full powers and a written constitution, where sovereignty lies with the people of Scotland. There are some who believe there is no need for change.

If you live in an affluent area, have a good job, drive a couple of nice cars, a good pension, a holiday home in Majorca and your kids are at private school, then why would you want change? I've enjoyed many of those advantages in my own life.

But surely life has to be about more than your own personal comfort? Isn't your life made worse when you know that half a mile away from your home there are people living in abject poverty through no fault of their own, with no hope, no future, no dreams of a better life.

I live in the east end of Glasgow -and am proud to do so … but I know that life expectancy for men is now 12 years or more below the affluent areas of Bearsden or Surrey. Where the number of children living in poverty is estimated at one in three. Where if you are poor you are 76% more likely to die of cancer.

Is that the vision that Labour and those who hold power see for this country? More of the same? Is that what the No campaign think is good enough?

The No camp tell us that we are the separatists, that we're splitting the Union, divorcing, Breaking up Britain, ripping things up, abandoning Britain and its common British values.

The irony is that it's not Scotland that's abandoning the British values that have bound us on both sides of the Border. It is Westminster, the London City state and its rich elites who have abandoned the British values my father and millions of others fought for in the Second World War.

The ideology that threw away the values of the post-war consensus and sold them off to the highest bidder, the values that my parents and grandparents believed in - they did believe that we were "all in it together"… the values that created the welfare state, the health service, that believed the state had a moral, as well as a social responsibility, to care for the sick, the poor, the disabled, the dispossessed … a society that would do its best to make people's lives better.

In the last couple of years, we have witnessed attacks on the working class, a demonisation of the working poor, that is worse than anything I have ever seen.

These myths and lies are designed to get working people to turn on each other. That's what they want. They want us fighting among ourselves because then we take our eyes off those who hold all the power and all the money.

I was brought up in a mining/steel community in Lanarkshire. My father, mother and my extended family would have died rather than not go to their work and feed their families.

When they hoped and dreamed of a better life for their children, it wasn't about money and their kids being rich - I don't remember them ever talking about making pots of money - it was about a better life, becoming a teacher or a doctor, or going to college or getting a trade so that we could live healthy, decent lives.

For me, the best decisions in life come from the head AND the heart.

So let's put our collective minds to the problem and create this better place. Let's lift our hearts and keep dreaming. As our Machar Liz Lochhead said: "We're allowed to dream."

As a woman I wouldn't be out demonstrating or writing or enjoying the life I have as a wife, mother, grandmother as well as a career, if it hadn't been for my foresisters dreaming that women had a right to their place in the world.

Barack Obama would not be in the White House had the Civil Rights movement not dreamed of a better place.

Let's dream and dream big for this bit of land and the people who inhabit it. Let's vote yes.