Scottish Labour Party leader Johann Lamont has called for an end to the increasingly “divisive” tone of the referendum debate, saying the eyes of the world would be on the country in the run-up to the vote on September 18.
She was speaking in Inverness yesterday as she officially opened the new constituency parliamentary office of Highlands and Islands Labour MSPs Rhoda Grant and David Stewart, in Gordon Terrace.
Ms Lamont said: “There is no doubt people are engaged in the debate but there is another divisive side to it and, while it is one thing to be passionate, it is another to be partisan.
“If the world is looking at Scotland in the next two weeks, I would like to see them looking at a political argument, passionate on both sides, but some of the images they will have seen are not pleasant.”
Mr Stewart told campaigners and party workers the building was once the office of Thomas Telford – the noted engineer who built the Caledonian Canal in the early 1800s.
Fast forwarding to 2014, Ms Lamont said the Union between Scotland and England had been a “very young thing” in Telford’s heyday, adding: “Our history is one thing, but our future is very important.
She added: “There is a strong, rational, and logical argument for voting No and people are always saying to me that they are just as passionate about staying part of the union than those against it.”