15/09/2014 Scotland Decides

Scotland decides now, Referendum Today with Sarah Smith.

Tonight, two leaders and two rival visions for the future of Scotland

just days before voters decide. The Prime Minister says he wants

Scotland to stay in the union with his head, heart and soul.

The family is not a compromise or a second best. It is a magical

identity that makes us more together than we can ever be apart. So please

do not break this family apart. Alex Salmond says Thursday will be a

once in a lifetime opportunity for Scotland as he stands alongside

prominent business bankers. It's very substantial groups in

Scottish business who say there is an opportunity from an independent

Scotland, to create a prosperous economy but also a just society.

Good evening from Glasgow. With just three days of campaigning to two

before Thursday's referendum, both sides have intensified their battle

to win votes. David Cameron has made an impassioned plea to voters to

save the union and reject independence. The First Minister,

Alex Salmond, accused his opponents of scaremongering and insisted a yes

vote would be good for the economy. We'll discuss the day's events and

what the final few days of the campaign might hold with political

bloggers. Let's hear what both sides have been saying today. An appeal

for voters from the Prime Minister who was speaking in Aberdeen.

As you stand in the stillness of the polling booth, I hope you have asked

yourself this, will my family and I truly will better off by going it

alone? Will we really be more safe and secure? Do I really want to turn

my back on the rest of Britain and why is it that so many people across

the world are asking why would Scotland want to do that? Why?

And if you don't know the answer to these questions, then please vote

no. At the end of the day, all the

arguments of this campaign can be reduced to a single fact ` we are

better together. As you reach your final decision,

please, please don't let anyone tell you you can't be a proud Scot and a

proud Brit. APPLAUSE

Please, don't lose faith in what this country is and what we can be.

Don't forget what a great United Kingdom you are a part of, don't

turn your backs on what is the best family in the nations in the world

and the best hope for your family in this world. So please, from all of

us, vote to stick together, vote to stay, vote to save our United

Kingdom. Thank you.

That was David Cameron in Aberdeen. Speaking in Edinburgh, Alex Salmond

insisted there were plenty of companies who believed the yes vote

would bolster Scotland's economy despite warnings to the contrary

from banks and supermarkets. He spoke to the BBC's James Cook and a

warning this clip contains flash photography.

The fastest growing group in business has been Business for

Scotland, supporting independence. We are demonstrating today, with

some of the most serious business people in Scotland, men and women

who're creating tens and thousands of jobs and careers, that there's

very substantial groups of Scottish business, looking for a prosperous

economy. There are negative things being said about Scotland. It was a

nonsense to argue that the land of Adam Smith was incapable of grabbing

our own finances and the demonstration from the Scottish job

creators is people with plenty of confidence. You are almost

suggesting that big oil, big businesses, big supermarkets,

somehow don't have a mind of Nairn own `` their own, suggesting they

have serious concerns about what an independent Scotland would look

like, not least in terms of currency? I'd never suggest all big

supermarkets did that. Many, Tesco, Aldi and others said they are never

going to get involved in a political debate. One or two were gulled into

the Prime Minister's scaremongering campaign. But I think these Scottish

businesses were substantially confident. They see the future as

creating a more prosperous economy but also see the importance of

holding society together and creating a more just society.

With just a few days left, what are the polls suggesting? Throughout

the,pain, we have been following the poll of polls calculated by the what

Scotland thinks website. It's based on half a dozen surveys and

suggestses the No Campaign is on 51% and the Yes Campaign on 49%.

With me now in the studio are two bloggers from both sides of the

debate. Duncan is a Labour activist and a No supporter and Andrew will

be voting yes. Thank you for coming in. Duncan, that was a very

passionate plea we heard from the Prime Minister this afternoon and he

set out a positive vision for what the UK could be if some other better

together supporters had been doing that earlier, the polls might not be

as tight? A lot of people have been saying positive things, but

unfortunately, we tend to get mired down, especially when it's been

three years of this debate. I think what we have seen recently is a

refresher, a lot of people have rejoined the campaign or come into

the campaign and we have seen some of the things revisited and some

important points about the positive aspects of the UK, about how we get

the strength of the UK with the powers of the Scottish Parliament

and these have v come back into the debate and that's welcome. A

slightly new message from Alex Salmond. He's saying it's a once in

a lifetime opportunity to vote for independence. Better together have

been saying the referendum is for life, don't vote yes because you

want to give the Tories a kicking. Alex Salmond is worried people are

tempted by the devolution offer and they want to give that a try for a

few years, he's telling them, this is your one chance to vote for

independence? I don't accept that interpretation of why he's

responding in this way. It's strange to hear David Cameron talking about

saying it's for ever as if Scots don't know it's for ever, as if we

haven't been paying attention. There are lots of blow`ins to the debate

after the YouGov poll but I don't think they have been following this

kind of debate and it's challenging for better together that many Scots

have already reached the point where they are making up their mind and

giving a very serious look at things. Scots understand the risks

and opportunities and I find it odd David Cameron's preaching to us as

if we haven't already add this `` had this discussion. Alex Salmond

was positioned with some yes supporting business leaders today

and I think that was by accident this close to the vote. We have had

warnings from big businesses about why independent Scotland's economy

might be at risk. He's trying to shore that up by positioning himself

with Business Today. He must be worried? He's reflecting the fact

that business is not a monolithic thing. Small and medium sized

businesses and multinationals which operate in Scotland and operate in

the UK and certainly I know folk that work in business and they have

a range of different perspectives. There are risks and opportunities on

independence, just as there are risks and tuns with staying in the

union. I don't Scots take this devolution

offer seriously. It has suddenly materialised from the ether and

nobody is taking it seriously. Let's stick with business. There were a

lot of warnings from big banks and other companies about the dangers of

independence. Is there a danger this might backfire? Scots don't like

being told what to do and if they think big business is ganging up and

telling them you cannot be independent then they might just

vote for it. That's a story that the SNP and the yes campaign have been

putting across. When you look at standard life under Royal Bank Of

Scotland where we keep our savings, you have Asda and sell the bulk ``

and other scoop markets where we do our shop. The ease the people

involved in every aspect of our lives and the for all businesses, I

run a small business, the reality is that if you introduce different

regulation or currency risk, or any sort of export where it has

previously been the home market, you introduce additional costs. It is

simply honesty from these supermarkets to say distribution

around Scotland is currently at a higher cost than distribution in the

rest of the UK and that will be reflected in prices if we do vote

for separation. Not all of the supermarkets say that, we should

point out. Thanks for coming in to talk to was. For the half million

pounds has been donated to the two rival campaigns in the referendum

since last November. `` four and a half. Nor has been spent on this

campaign and any other in Scotland's history. `` more. Over

the last year, those with big money have been backing both sides of the

debate. The total figure for political campaigning in Scotland

has hit a record high. Today's figures show the total amounts given

to the campaign organisations. Yes groups have received more than ?1.8

million, and no campaigners have been given nearly two and no

campaigners have been given nearly two and three quarters million

pounds. Those figures don't even include donations to political

parties. That dwarfs the spending the 2010 general election, where

just over ?3 million were spent in total in Scotland. The question is,

what is all the cash being spent on? Some of it of course goes on staff

and offices, but the biggest chunk has gone directly on trying to win

your vote. The billboard company prime site, who had been sticking up

posters for both campaigns say the total amount of spending on outlaw

advertising is around one and a half million pounds, with lots of that

coming to them. We've never seen such high occupancy levels on

billboards over the last 12 months, and this has had a huge impact on

us. ?1.5 million is a lot of money to be spending, how much does it

cost to put up one individual advert? We have backlit illuminated

billboards, and they would be about ?1500 for two weeks, right up to

digital screens which could, depending on the site, anywhere

between ?1500 and up to ?10,000 again for a two`week period. And

it's not just posters that have been eating up the campaign budgets. Over

the last couple of months we've been inundated by material from the yes

and the no campaigns. But this sort of publication doesn't come cheap.

Is it really worth it? Will the referendum result effectively be

decided by which campaign has spent the most money? Everything is

important in this campaign. We realise that is very close and so

billboards, posters, door`to`door canvassing, the amount of stock we

are getting throughout letterboxes right now is quite incredible but it

does look like with social media for example it is less important how

much money you have and more important about how you get that

message out and how many other people can re`tweet that message.

Although spending has been hugely significant in this campaign, in a

digital age, influencing voters is no longer just a straightforward

matter of flashing the most cash. Stay with BBC News the latest on the

Scottish referendum. Tomorrow, Christian Fraser will be live in

Aberdeenshire, finding out about the impact of the referendum result on

the fishing industry. You can get the latest online including our

correspondent Glenn Campbell looking at Scotland's future in Europe if

there is a yes vote at Scotland's future in Europe if there is a

that's all from a fortnight. I will be back again tomorrow night. Until

then, goodbye. The headlines this evening on BBC

News. Alex Salmond tells business leaders that independence would

bring Scotland a prosperous economy but in a speech in Aberdeen, the

Prime Minister warns that a Scottish exit would be forever. The Foreign

Secretary Philip Hammond says Britain will play a leading role in

tackling Islamic State terrorists.