Chris Harvie

Professor Chris Harvie is an MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife.

‘Scottish nationalists used to be dismissed (by myself among others) as emotional. Things have changed. I have been converted from a federalist into someone who believes that independence can't come soon enough.

Is Scottish independence too drastic? The upside of the present situation of high oil prices means Scotland can use the weather-window of our North Sea resources to get the technology and training we need to construct an eco-hi-tech future. It’s time to win Scotland for a rational life in a saveable world

I can help to suggest some ways out because I've worked for the government of Europe's major hi-tech region and for Germany's best economics faculty. The Scots can still do some things equally well - think offshore engineering, educational technology, the huge Edinburgh culture fest - but we need to deal direct with Europe to buy what we need and sell what we’re good at. In this we get little help from New Labour's gravy train and even less from the Foreign Office and the British Council.

Independence means partnerships with the advanced regions and small countries of Western Europe. It means drawing on the talents of new Scots needed to balance an ageing population, and tackling the deep-seated problems of Scottish ill health, drugs and social breakdown. It means progress.’