Independence Debate

I just listened to Alistair Darling on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland (GMS) programme and the head of the Better Campaign was truly awful, I have to say.

For some reason Alistair, whom I like as a politician, was all over the place and his message sounded increasingly desperate as he likened Scotland to Panama and effectively accepted that the NHS is 'safe' in the Conservatives hands.

Now I could be wrong here, but as someone with a close interest in politics over recent years I could swear that the Labour Party (and the trade unions) have been saying that the present (Tory led) Coalition Government have been destroying the NHS since 2010.

Yet Alistair's message was that NHS funding has been increasing year on year and that everything is hunky dory - in which case what has all the fuss been about over these terrible 'cuts' in NHS spending?

Now it could be that these Labour led cuts campaigns have been completely dishonest, politically speaking, but the point is that Alistair can't have it both ways and I'm sure he realises that himself after his performance on GMS.

Alistair also seems to me to be on shaky ground with his attempts to characterise Scotland as some kind of 'banana republic' and he really does need to explain why Scotland should be responsible for any of the UK's national debt, if the rest of the UK says it will not share a central bank if Scotland votes for independence.

Game on, as they say.