:00:00. > :00:00.next hour. John, thank you.
:00:00. > :00:12.Now, Scotland decides, our review of the week with James Cook.
:00:13. > :00:19.This week on the look back at the past seven days of the referendum
:00:20. > :00:23.campaign in Scotland. Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling meet in debate
:00:24. > :00:29.for the final time, before the vote. Business leaders pile in too,
:00:30. > :00:33.arguing about the pros and cons for companies big and small. We travel
:00:34. > :00:39.to some of Scotland's most remote communities to hear the views of
:00:40. > :00:45.islanders. Welcome to Scotland Decides, a review of the week. The
:00:46. > :00:48.stately surroundings of Glasgow's museum felt more like a boxing arena
:00:49. > :00:53.when Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling slugged it out in the second
:00:54. > :00:59.and final televised debate. Yet again, the economy and weather and
:01:00. > :01:06.`` whether and how an independent Scotland could use the pound,
:01:07. > :01:13.dominated. Of course we could use the rulebook... We can use the
:01:14. > :01:17.pound? The problem you are using somebody else's currency. You don't
:01:18. > :01:22.have a Central Bank, so our financial services can't exist in
:01:23. > :01:26.Scotland. The second thing ` hold on one moment. As we have heard, we
:01:27. > :01:32.cannot be stopped from using the pound. What they can do is deny us
:01:33. > :01:40.the financial access held at the Bank of England. The Bank of England
:01:41. > :01:44.owes 27% of UK debt. We are offering to pay our fair share of this
:01:45. > :01:49.agreement. Do you say we are not taking the debt? If the UK parties
:01:50. > :01:52.take all of the financial assets of the United Kingdom, then we are
:01:53. > :01:59.stuck with all the liabilities of the United Kingdom. It's perfectly
:02:00. > :02:04.obvious. Plenty of sound and fury there, but what did it signify? Alex
:02:05. > :02:09.Salmond was widely judged to have won, with a much better performance
:02:10. > :02:15.than in the first clash, particularly on currency. Of course,
:02:16. > :02:19.not everyone agreed. Alex Salmond has three other options. He said
:02:20. > :02:23.they were all buses that come along at once. When you get on you know
:02:24. > :02:28.where a bus is going, but the currency bus has been blacked out
:02:29. > :02:33.and the driver is blindfolded. He wants a currency union. But if he
:02:34. > :02:39.doesn't get one, he can't tell us what the currency will be. I can't
:02:40. > :02:43.help, although I disagree with Alex Salmond, I can't help agreeing with
:02:44. > :02:47.him that very clearly this is a campaign tactic by the "no" side to
:02:48. > :02:52.scare people into thinking that we can't possibly vote for independence
:02:53. > :02:55.when we know very clearly that there are several viable options. The
:02:56. > :02:58.questions that Alex Salmond didn't answer three weeks ago, he didn't
:02:59. > :03:03.answer yesterday. We still don't know what currency there will be in
:03:04. > :03:08.an independent Scotland. He talked about three plan Bs. What is plan B?
:03:09. > :03:14.Two are at least completely unworkable. I think people ` people
:03:15. > :03:19.think it's patronising, if he thinks people are going to take that risk
:03:20. > :03:26.into the dark about what the value of the money is. I think there are a
:03:27. > :03:29.few major revelations. The most important was was that Alistair
:03:30. > :03:33.Darling confirmed there was nothing to stop Scotland continuing to use
:03:34. > :03:37.the pound after a "yes" vote. Contradicting what the "no" campaign
:03:38. > :03:40.spokesperson had said that afternoon. That's something that
:03:41. > :03:47.Alistair Darling is not going to be able to get away from and shows the
:03:48. > :03:52.level of the substance and lack of substance that there is to the scare
:03:53. > :03:58.stories. The debate was a talking point on social media all over
:03:59. > :04:02.Scotland. This map of tweets, which included a location, shows hot spots
:04:03. > :04:06.across the country and the debate tleneded in Spain. `` trended in
:04:07. > :04:15.Spain. We'll look at some. James said:
:04:16. > :04:45.Mark will wams saw it the other `` Williams saw it the other way:
:04:46. > :04:52.That's the reaction. We'll look at some of the other stories.
:04:53. > :04:55.The Labour MP Jim Murphy, who is on a soapbox tour of Scotland's
:04:56. > :04:59.streets, was hit by several eggs as he struggled to shout over a hostile
:05:00. > :05:05.Supporters of the Yes campaign were also accused of shouting
:05:06. > :05:09.Mr Murphy said he was suspending his campaign while he took advice
:05:10. > :05:15.The trade body Oil and Gas UK, which represents
:05:16. > :05:18.the oil industry said it stood by its estimate that between 12 and 24
:05:19. > :05:21.billion barrels of oil could still be extracted from the North Sea.
:05:22. > :05:24.There were also predictions of a new oil boom west of Shetland.
:05:25. > :05:27.But campaigners for the union continued to insist
:05:28. > :05:30.there was not enough oil to prevent tax rises or spending cuts
:05:31. > :05:36.Now, the National Health Service in Scotland is overseen from Edinburgh
:05:37. > :05:43.Nonetheless it has become a hot topic in the independence
:05:44. > :05:45.debate, with claims from the SNP that its budget could fall if
:05:46. > :05:58.Everybody knows, everybody accepts that the rate of inflation in the
:05:59. > :06:05.health service is always higher by definition than it is within the
:06:06. > :06:14.economy as a whole. When John points to the worry, it is not as portrayed
:06:15. > :06:18.by some, if you vote no, you would essentially be an accomplice to
:06:19. > :06:22.finishing off the NHS in Scotland, utter rubbish, an insult of
:06:23. > :06:27.intelligence. I think there intelligence. I think there is a
:06:28. > :06:32.deeper issue behind this question of the NHS in England, it is an issue
:06:33. > :06:37.of trust and democracy. You may recall the 2010 general election
:06:38. > :06:41.when both parties now in government had in their manifestoes that they
:06:42. > :06:45.would not conduct any more top`down reforms of the NHS and yet within 18
:06:46. > :06:51.months they had enacted a reform which every independent commentator
:06:52. > :06:52.agreed could lead to the rake up and emergence of daylight the privatised
:06:53. > :06:54.NHS. Business took centre stage this week
:06:55. > :06:57.with arguments about profits, The Prime Minister spoke
:06:58. > :07:01.at a Confederation of British Industry dinner in Glasgow,
:07:02. > :07:04.an event which had to be scaled back to avoid breaking the law
:07:05. > :07:08.on campaign funding. He told the audience that the degree
:07:09. > :07:21.of success Scottish businesses enjoy It happens because of the skill of
:07:22. > :07:24.people in Scotland and because of the opportunities that come from
:07:25. > :07:30.being part of something bigger. A large domestic market underpinned by
:07:31. > :07:35.a common currency, common taxes, common rules and regulations with no
:07:36. > :07:37.borders, no transaction costs, no restrictions on the flow of goods,
:07:38. > :07:39.investment or people. But headlines written about
:07:40. > :07:41.the event focused on a different warning, from the CBI president Sir
:07:42. > :07:44.Mike Rake who didn't just voice his criticised Mr Cameron's policy
:07:45. > :07:56.on Europe. We accept that holding a referendum
:07:57. > :08:00.on EU membership is an issue for the government, that ambiguity is
:08:01. > :08:02.increasingly causing real concern for businesses based on future
:08:03. > :08:03.investment plans. Earlier in the week the divided
:08:04. > :08:06.opinion of business was laid bare First,
:08:07. > :08:09.around 130 business leaders signed a letter in the Scotsman voicing
:08:10. > :08:13.concern about the impact of a "yes" vote; then some 200 business leaders
:08:14. > :08:29.wrote a similar missive to the What you have in the stand is that
:08:30. > :08:33.99% of business in Scotland. S M Es, they are entrepreneurial, they
:08:34. > :08:39.invest their own hard cash into business in Scotland. I think the
:08:40. > :08:45.uncertainty of remaining in the UK is that we could be pulled out of
:08:46. > :08:46.the European Union without our consent and our markets and our
:08:47. > :08:48.ability to trade would be damaged. Now, time for our weekly look
:08:49. > :08:52.at the latest polling. And the poll of polls suggests
:08:53. > :08:55.a slight move to the yes campaign, But the no campaign still leads on
:08:56. > :09:00.56% when don't knows are excluded. That's according to an average
:09:01. > :09:03.of half a dozen polls taken in August, calculated by the
:09:04. > :09:09.What Scotland Thinks website. As we countdown to the referendum
:09:10. > :09:12.we're canvassing opinions on the debate across Scotland, and our
:09:13. > :09:28.special correspondent Allan Little The independence debate reaches into
:09:29. > :09:33.every community, the level of engagement is unprecedented. The
:09:34. > :09:39.annual Islay agricultural show brings the community together, minds
:09:40. > :09:41.are being made up in places like this in lengthy, passionate
:09:42. > :09:48.conversations between friends and neighbours. Definitely no. I ended
:09:49. > :09:53.see chaos. What's the point of saying we want to be separate but
:09:54. > :09:57.meantime all we get is a list of the things we don't want to lose? It
:09:58. > :10:05.must be nice to be one or the other. I keep getting pulled back
:10:06. > :10:09.and forward. I think it is great, it is the only chance in my lifetime to
:10:10. > :10:17.be able to take this step and give it a go. It won't be easy but it
:10:18. > :10:22.might be hard and cost money but it is well worth doing. In a place like
:10:23. > :10:25.this you see something very important about the nature of this
:10:26. > :10:31.debate. It is not just about national identity, it is about
:10:32. > :10:34.power, where it should reside, how to make the centre accountable to
:10:35. > :10:38.people who live on the periphery. There has been a national flag
:10:39. > :10:43.waving at this has also been an extraordinary and energetic debate
:10:44. > :10:48.that has energised people in every part of the country, in groups of
:10:49. > :10:54.friends, families and about the nature of democracy itself and how
:10:55. > :10:58.to make it better. The pace of that debate is now accelerating fast.
:10:59. > :11:03.Both sides say they want change and the decision, change in or out of
:11:04. > :11:10.the United Kingdom, is now just three weeks away. Don't forget you
:11:11. > :11:16.can catch up with the latest analysis on our website. You will
:11:17. > :11:24.find a lot of information there including information on the
:11:25. > :11:28.specific topics to hopefully enable you to make your own decision. That
:11:29. > :11:43.is it for now, I will be back at the same time next week. Goodbye.
:11:44. > :11:51.One more story to bring you before we look at the weekend weather
:11:52. > :11:54.forecast. As you know, this is Matthew's last day with us. He is
:11:55. > :11:55.going to BBC