To vote Yes is to end the most successful 307 year union of countries that ever existed.  There has never been a country who devolved into independence that was successful because of its independence. Even Norway, who most Yes voters use as their example, went through an extreme depression after independence and only managed to catch up with the UK GDP after about 150 years of incredibly trying times.

Scotland will be poor and it will have very few profitable assets. Oil belongs to oil companies that have paid for their leases already and can distribute the oil where they like. Even if we were to continue to reap the benefits of the North Sea, oil brings in about 6.6 billion in revenue per year which won’t even make up for the 8.7 billion that will be lost from the financial institutions that have already promised to leave Scotland in the event of a no.

The yes camp will fall into disarray – their dream of an independent Scotland is personal to all of them in very different ways and the contradictions will be unlimited. You will have a Green, oil-chemical dependent Scotland. A corporation tax lowering, capitalist, socialist Scotland. Obviously, this will not and cannot work.

There will be no-one to bail us out of trouble when the economy collapses. The Scottish people will pay. It is unlikely we will be accepted into Europe straight away, especially when that acceptance will likely mean an almost immediate bail out. And if we are, then surely this will be another betrayal of the longed for “independence”. We will then become a strain on the European economy and serve to further damage the tender financial condition that Europe remains in.

The decision will be final. It won’t be a trial of separation. We can’t beg to come back when it all goes wrong. There is no event in life when separating oneself from everything close to us makes us better off. Shunning neighbours, families, friends, workers has always had a negative effect on an individual and so too will it have a negative effect on the country of Scotland.

In the event of a No, the Scottish parliament will receive even more powers including taxing powers in order to appease those Scots who want more of their politics to be decided in Scotland. They will also still receive huge amounts of money from the south that they will probably continue to spend unwisely on trams and unnecessary trains (which they couldn’t even do efficiently or properly). This money could have been spent on raising education and infrastructure where it was needed. It could have been spent on the Yes voters who feel hard done by from the evil Tory/Westminster government. What these Yes voters don’t realise is that help was given. It was just mismanaged and handled by the Scottish government who ensured it didn’t reach the people that needed it most. Could this have been a ploy to gain further support for the future referendum? I speculate but you never know…

Independence will be like that monumental failure of a tram. Unnecessary, unsuccessful, causing disruption for years and replacing something that worked better than it ever could. (I refer to the bus service that went from Waverley to the airport every 15 minutes – incidentally, a very reliable service.)

The Yes campaign has successfully targeted the hearts of Scottish people. Without giving any factual information about how Scotland will be better off without the UK, they have simply promised a “better” Scotland relying on the imagination of the individual to do the hard work for them. A clever ruse. Even if this was true and Scotland could become better off, there is also the emotional point of view from the No side to consider. We’ve built up a family of nations over 307 years. In that time we created one of the greatest empires ever seen in the history of mankind and we have led by example, as a world super power, the rest of the world. We stand up for countries that cannot stand up for themselves. We provide free healthcare instead of asking for a credit card when people enter hospitals. We invent, create, debate, celebrate, help and nurture everything that comes our way and we do so with dignity and strength to the extent that this tiny island has remained a super power for its entire united history. Tomorrow, that might all be gone.

I’d like to list a few things that will be destroyed if there is a Yes tomorrow. This is by no means everything, but perhaps helps to indicate exactly what we might be losing from an emotional perspective.

In the event of a Yes there will be:

• No more UK wide celebrations
• No more UK wide sports
• No more British Lions
• No more UK traditions
• No more UK army
• No UK pensions
• No UK passports
• No UK pound
• No UK NHS
• No UK family

It would be the end of a country that:

• Abolished slavery
• Gave women rights
• Launched the enlightenment
• Defeated fascism
• Drove the industrial revolution
• Fought two world wars together where people fought and died as Brits; not Scots or Englishmen.

It would mean:

• Over half of Scottish mortgages would be provided by banks in a foreign country.
• Interest rates would be dictated by banks with no stake in the Scottish economy.
• Scotland will pay for the inevitable collapse of our banks and financial institutions.
• No more UK funding on health care and national security.
• Devolution and going against our natural instinct to evolve and unite around the world rather than separate.
• Friends and relatives from each side of the border torn apart and forced to live as foreigners from each other.
• A long lasting enmity between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
• The decline of our influence within the world. Four small countries instead of one GREAT Britain.

Warning of these consequences is not scaremongering – it is the factual lay out of the future of an independent Scotland. For the sake of everyone and everything that you love and hold dear, if you still have a vote, vote NO and help continue to make the UK a stronger and more unified country.