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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: The Prime Minister, David Cameron and the First Minister, Alex Salmond, will meet tomorrow to agree terms for a referendum on Scottish independence. A little earlier I spoke to the Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, and she’s been locked in negotiations with the Scotland Secretary, Michael Moore, who joins me now. A very good morning to you Mr Moore, I put it to Nicola Sturgeon there that they have done quite well I suppose in getting what they wanted in terms of the timing of thins referendum. We heard from Mr Cameron, originally he wanted it as soon as possible, well you’ve now given them two years to make their case.

MICHAEL MOORE: What we have said from the outset is that we needed to recognise the historic victory of the SNP in the Scottish Parliament last year which put the referendum on independence on the table but what we’ve been working through as two governments over the last few months, is how do we make sure that referendum is legal, is fair, is decisive and made in Scotland and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to reach that agreement which will be signed tomorrow.

DM: But are you delighted about the timing? You would still in your heart of hearts had preferred it this year or early next year or something like that?

MM: Well the sooner we can get this underway and deal with the issue, the better but we have always been clear that we didn’t see that as being an obstacle to be put in the way of us coming to an agreement and that agreement is important because as things stand, the Scottish parliament doesn’t have the power to run this referendum so what we’re doing is help the SNP to honour their manifesto commitment but doing it on a basis that’s legal, that’s fair and will give us a clear cut outcome so that in Scotland we’ll know whether we are staying part of the UK or going our own separate way. I clearly want Scotland to stay in the UK and I’m sure it will.

DM: And we understand it is going to be a single question, not what the SNP originally wanted with a lesser option of devo-max as it was dubbed. Do you have any idea, well you do have an idea what the question is going to be?

MM: The important point is that the two governments have different views of Scotland’s future but we have a common goal in making sure we have a process that is fair, that is recognised by all the participants as fair and will give us this decisive outcome. We can only do that if it has a proper legal basis. Now I am pleased that we have now got that dealt with because we can now turn our attention to the big issues because I think however long we debate this for, the fundamentals are pretty clear, that Scotland is better and stronger as an economy by being part of the UK. We export twice as much to England as we do to any other part of the world, when our banks famously collapsed a few years ago, the strength of the UK economy helped get them back on their feet.

DM: And a lot of them Scottish.

MM: Well that’s fundamental to why I think we’re better together rather than separate.

DM: So those issues are going to be much rehearsed and aired over the next two years.

MM: The process issue over the last eighteen months has slightly obscured that but we now have a chance to move on.

DM: Just to get the shape of what’s going to happen, this idea of 16, 17 year olds voting, if that happens and you win the referendum, how are you going to put that back in the box for a general election?

MM: I appreciate this is a bit frustrating today when all of this is to be unveiled tomorrow. On that particular issue, I think it’s important that we recognise that the Scottish parliament should determine the detail of this referendum but they will be doing it in the context of an agreement between the two governments that sets out a fair process for that. As a Liberal Democrat, I don’t have a problem with 16 and 17 year olds being involved in elections or referenda, however I do recognise at the UK level at Westminster there is no consensus about that so I don’t imagine that’s going to happen any time soon although I’ll continue to make the argument for it. But how it works through in the Scottish context has yet to be determined.

DM: Okay, Michael Moore, thank you very much indeed.