Politicians trade blows over independence

Tory Prime Minister David Cameron claimed Scots "had the best of both worlds" as part of the union and promised his government would lay out the facts about indpendence to the public.

Mr Cameron conceded: "There's no question about whether Scotland could be an independent nation."

But he added: "The real question is whether it should - whether Scotland is stronger, safer, richer and fairer within our United Kingdom or outside it. And here, I believe, the answer is clear."

Slamming his speech, Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Mr Cameron is "living proof" of the need for independence.

She added: "Westminster's ability to reinvent itself is spent and now the very institutions which once made us distinct, the welfare state and - in England - the NHS, are under attack from this Westminster system of government."

And the Holyrood government's fiscal commission will tomorrow set out an economic model "for day one of independence" in a report which includes a pledge to keep sterling as Scotland's currency "immediately post-independnence."

But Labour MSP Neil Findlay said the choice for Scottish people cannot be "between Cameron/Clegg austerity and the SNP's kilted neoliberalism."

Mr Findlay said the new Red Paper Collective is offering an alternative which "promotes investment in jobs and services through progressive taxation - that is a position that I believe most Scots support."

The MSP is among speakers at the collective's seminar on consitution reform in Glasgow on Saturday at the STUC, 333 Woodlands Road, from 10am.