Jim Mather

Jim Mather is Minister for Enterprise and MSP for Argyll & Bute.

'Independence is simply the only way for any nation to control its own affairs and produce optimal results for its people.

For me Independence is still the freshest, most precious and most compelling of ideas: for it is the only way in which we can deliver a more prosperous, more robust, fairer and more risk-free Scotland.

Of course, such a call will always trigger dishonest claims that Scotland must choose between the Union or Separation.

But there is no such choice.

There is only a choice between being more competitive and more prosperous or continuing with a system that has progressively made Scotland less competitive and less prosperous for my entire adult life.

Scotland can choose enlightened national self-interest, capable of delivering good social provision and international generosity, or it can choose dependence. Therefore, given the palpable economic weakness and human misery caused by dependence, we must be Independent.

In other words, things need to change for the better as has happened in all the other countries that chose Independence and took that road to national renewal.

And it is our role to generate the courage to change by educating the people of Scotland in the options that face them and the experience of others.

That way we can set an objective of winning a Referendum on Independence by the impatient acclaim of the vast majority of voters. Just as in 1905, when 368,000 Norwegians voted in favour of Independence with a mere 184 opposed. And our case is much more compelling and potentially rewarding than Norway's was in 1905.'