Scotland’s future in the United Kingdom will be decided by voters in a key poll in six months time.
The independence debate passed another key landmark, with campaigners on both sides stepping up efforts ahead of the historic vote on September 18.
First Minister Alex Salmond insisted a Yes vote was key to securing a “more prosperous and more just society”.
He said pro-independence campaigners had set out a “compelling vision” for why Scotland should leave the UK.
Mr Salmond argued polls were showing increasing support for independence, saying the latest survey had put support for a yes vote at 45%.
“We’re very content with the process of change which is seeing the Yes vote increasing and the No vote diminishing,” he stated.
“And that’s happening precisely because, unlike the No campaign, we’re fighting an upbeat, positive campaign about the potential future for Scotland that is a prosperous economy, and a just society. That’s a compelling vision which accounts for the increase in support, month by month, poll by poll.”
Meanwhile his Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon set out six “compelling reasons” for voters to back independence, saying this would create more jobs, ensure cash raised from taxes is spent on “Scotland’s priorities”, protect public services, “guarantee we get governments we vote for”, set up an oil fund and bring about a retirement age in line with Scotland’s circumstances.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The referendum is a choice between taking Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands or leaving our future in the hands of an out-of-touch Westminster establishment.”
Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling said his Better Together campaign offered a “positive vision” for staying in the UK, backed by warnings of the “huge risks” that independence would bring.
“What the last few weeks have shown is that leaving the UK would create huge risks and cost jobs in Scotland,” he said.
“On what would replace the Pound, how our pensions would be paid and what would happen to our membership of the EU, leaving the UK would be a big leap in the dark.
“This is what Scotland’s largest employers are saying. From Standard Life to Shell, and from RBS to the shipyard owners on the Clyde, walking away from the UK means people in Scotland would lose their jobs. That’s the price of independence. It’s a risk that we simply don’t have to take.”
However Blair Jenkins, chief executive of the pro-independence Yes Scotland campaign, said it was “important to keep focused on the big picture in this independence debate, to see the opportunity we have to build a better society”.