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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, Alex Salmond announced this week, or last week, that the referendum on Scottish independence will take place on 18th September 2014 so we’ve got the date but what about more on the detail? What would an independent Scotland actually look like? Well who better than the First Minister to tell me and he joins me now from Inverness, a very good morning to you Mr Salmond. I suppose your appeal about Scottish independence is going to be on the issue of head and heart. On the head side of it are you going to tell people they are going to be better off eventually in an independent Scotland and if so, how?

ALEX SALMOND: Well as you know, Dermot, we’ve already published the work of the Fiscal Commission on the financial structures of an independent Scotland, that’s a hugely weighty tome of two Nobel laureates in economics including Joe Stiglitz who contributed to that, so that’s a very substantial piece of information. Our central argument is that if we match our great natural resources with the fantastic human resources of Scotland and put them together we can build both a prosperous economy and, equally importantly, a just society.

DM: But you’ve got two looming icebergs and I know some of your background briefings mention that, you’ve got huge pension liabilities and a dwindling supply – you mention natural resources – a dwindling supply of oil and gas.

AS: Well let me take these two in turn. I mean obviously we’re looking as a government at the affordability of pensions, all governments are doing that. We are at an advantage of course compared with the UK, is the Scottish expenditure as a share of our total national wealth on social protection is actually less than the UK as a whole so we are in a better position in terms of affordability of pensions and social protections than the UK as a whole but that’s a challenge for all governments in the Western world and people would expect us to be looking at that. In terms of the natural resources, I don’t agree at all. What we now know from the latest work of the industry oil and gas body, there are up to 24 billion barrels of oil and gas remain to be extracted from the waters around Scotland, the estimated wholesale value of that is £1.5 trillion, that’s a thousand billion pounds, over the next forty years or so. That compares with just over a trillion over the last forty years, so there is actually more than half of the value of oil and gas resources have still to be extracted from the waters around Scotland and that must be a hugely important and comfortable position for any country to be in.

DM: Okay, so what about the hearts side of it? Looking at that date, a lot of people have been … well you commented on it yourself, you’ve got the Commonwealth Games, the Ryder Cup, the second homecoming, there’s going to be a lot of Scottish flag waving there. Is part of your pitch going to be to people, saying well if you don’t vote yes you’re really spoiling the fun?

AS: Well I should obviously take you on as one of my advisors, Dermot. I’ll lock that away as one of our themes for next year. But look, this is the right date for Scotland to decide. We said we’d have the referendum in the second half of the parliamentary term and that’s what we’ve done. I think people are pretty happy with the SNP as an administration in Scotland at the present moment, the Sunday Times poll this morning shows support for the SNP government at almost 50%, that’s higher even than it was two years ago in the landslide so when we said we’d have the referendum in the second half of the parliamentary term we meant that. We’ve now announced the date, September 18th, that gives a good time for having a good debate about such an important and exciting decision for Scotland.

DM: I mean you’ve got this other bill, the Franchise Bill, haven’t you, talking about this – and it is quite a dramatic departure, getting 16 and 17 year olds to vote. Are you going to make special provisions there because you are effectively politicising schools, certainly the upper levels of them there, where the debate no doubt will be fierce about independence. Are you going to have special rules about canvassing and leafleting outside schools and inside schools?

AS: The Electoral Commission of course draws up exactly these rules, not just rules for that but rules across the board. Listen, there isn’t really any great concern about this in Scotland, we believe that if you are old enough to get married, if you are old enough to pay tax if you’re working, if you’re old enough to join the armed forces or to say you’re joining, then you’re old enough to vote on your country’s future and this is not something which is just a policy for the independence referendum, of course in the elections that we’ve controlled in Scotland, the health boards, the crofting commission, we already introduced votes for 16 and 17 year olds. It’s about our trust in the future of the country.

DM: I mean, just a specific point Mr Salmond, will canvassers from your party be standing outside the school gates handing leaflets to school children?

AS: For goodness sake, we already have political information imparted in schools in a proper and balanced way, that happens already, it’s called modern studies and political debates. We have hustings at every election, whether it’s Scottish or Westminster, at just about every school in the country for goodness sake. I mean the BBC even actually organises a series of elections in schools during election campaigns, there is nothing new there at all. But the rules in terms of what is done and what is not done in terms of the campaign are in the hands of the Electoral Commission and that’s exactly what it should be. We’re having a ballot in Scotland, Dermot, which is going to meet and I think everybody now just about accepts this, the highest standards internationally in terms of the conduct of an election. We are well capable of doing that and that is exactly what we are going to do.

DM: The press are going to be all-important of course as well and we know you have fraternal friendly contacts with Rupert Murdoch. Have you got any indications about his view and which way his papers will go? Have you spoken to him since you announced the date?

AS: Well I think if you look at the News International papers, then some of them are vehemently against independence like the Times and the Sunday Times and some of them take a more favourable view like the Sun for example. So the News International press, like the rest of the press, don’t act as a block but it is quite true of course that the vast majority of written printed newspapers in Scotland are hostile to independence but, you know, that didn’t stop the SNP winning the election with a landslide two years ago and we don’t think it will stop us winning the referendum campaign. You win a referendum campaign by winning the arguments and if you can win the argument and the debate then you can win the referendum and I’m pleased to show, incidentally just to mention that in the Sunday Times poll this morning the yes sides votes are increasing and the no sides votes are decreasing so although there is still a gap to be closed, we are in an excellent position over this next eighteen months to close that gap.

DM: If you can get Mr Murdoch on side. When did you last speak to him?

AS: I can’t remember. I last met him in Bute House and released a press statement because what we believe in doing in Scotland is if you have meetings with people then do it openly, no sort of slipping them in the back door of Downing Street or wherever. So this is not a great issue, people will make up their minds and debate and have the issues that need to be debated and I doubt if the press will act as a block on one side or the other. I think in the yes campaign we’re hoping for more support in the press but we probably are realising that we are going to have to win this argument in a whole range of ways including door to door canvassing, including online, including offline, including a whole range of ways that you go about your persuasion and that’s exactly what we are going to do. You don’t do it by hoping for particular support in particular areas, you try and get as much support as you can, try and win then arguments and win the referendum.

DM: Okay, last question about the weather, Mr Salmond, and that’s 2014, right now the weather is playing havoc with so many parts of the UK as it’s currently configured. What’s happening in Scotland?

AS: Well as of this morning we’ve 10,000 people without electricity, mostly in the south-west of Scotland and some of our islands like Arran for example but we had almost 400 engineers working overnight from both Scottish Power and SSE to get people reconnected and we’re hoping that that figure of 10,000 will reduce substantially today. There are obviously great difficulties in terms of accessibility in the islands, particularly where some of the big pylons have gone down and therefore we are putting in emergency generators to set up help centres for people who are vulnerable but you can absolutely be sure that people are working flat out to get families reconnected but I’m sure everybody will appreciate that the engineers are dealing with some appalling conditions so we’ll be working hard to get people back on to the electricity supply.

DM: Okay, First Minister, thank you very much indeed. Alex Salmond there.