Alex Salmond will today echo the words of Robert the Bruce and Winston Churchill as he issues an emotive plea for voters to seize their chance of independence in “Scotland’s hour”.
The SNP leader is due to give a speech in London tonight in which he will attack the wartime rhetoric deployed by the campaign to save the UK.
He will highlight reports that members of the coalition government referred to in their recent offensive in the independence battle as their “Dambusters strategy” as evidence of Westminster’s “antiquated” attitude to Scotland.
The first minister will also develop the war theme himself, accusing Chancellor George Osborne of having “dive-bombed” Scots with his warning that the Treasury would never accept a currency union.
He will even evoke Mr Churchill’s famous “This was their finest hour” speech from 1940, and wartime “hour of need” slogans in Britain, by seeking to re-brand September’s referendum as “Scotland’s hour”.
The battle cry is also reminiscent of Robert Burns’s patriotic song Scots Wha Hae, which contains the line “Now’s the day, an now’s the hour”, and was written in 1793 as a speech given by Robert the Bruce before Scotland maintained its sovereignty from England at the Battle of Bannockburn, 700 years ago.
In what will be his first independence speech in the UK capital this year, Mr Salmond will say: “In the last three weeks people in Scotland have seen an array of approaches from the UK Government – what they apparently call their ‘Dambusters’ strategy.
“We were love-bombed from a distance by David Cameron, then dive-bombed at close range by George Osborne.”
Contrasting his characterisation of the “no” camp’s tactics with those of the “yes” side, the first minister will say he is seeking to “engage with the people of England on the case for progressive reform”, and reiterate that “Scotland will not be a foreign country after independence”.
He is expected to say: “But the ‘Dambusters’ rhetoric has betrayed an attitude as antiquated as it is unacce-ptable. From the myopic perspective of the Westminster elite, Scotland is last among equals.
“There will be a moment for everyone in Scotland, on referendum day, when they stand in the polling booth knowing they are helping to shape their country’s future.”