GLASGOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – With less than six days until the Scottish independence referendum, David Coburn, the UK Independence Party's (UKIP) first ever Scottish Member of the European Parliament (MEP), told RIA Novosti Friday that independence is not on offer whilst the parties supporting it also back EU membership.
Alex Salmond, the leader of the pro-Scottish independence campaign, would be "better off" maintaining a shared currency with England, Coburn told RIA Novosti.
"Salmond is not offering independence. He is offering rule from Brussels and financial rule from Frankfurt. That is not independence. They are better off being in a sound currency shared with England for 300 years. What could be better than that relationship?" Coburn said.
Asked what he thought the final result of the referendum might be, the MEP said, "I think it will be 60-40 in favor of the Union… I think most people have common sense and see that our place in the UK is much more valuable and helps us punch above our weight, especially internationally and it also allows England to punch above its weight internationally."
"We were as nothing before the two countries joined and we will be as nothing after the two countries separate," Coburn told RIA Novosti.
The MEP was speaking ahead of a major UKIP rally in Glasgow to be led by the party's leader Nigel Farage MEP.
"We are a pan-British party, not class based, and we have a healthy dislike of the European Union which is all that Mr Salmond is offering," Coburn told RIA Novosti.
On September 18, Scotland is scheduled to hold a referendum on independence from the United Kingdom. The voters will be asked one question, "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
The ICM poll, published in the Guardian newspaper Friday, shows the No campaign on 51 percent and the Yes campaign on 49 percent.
Blair Jenkins of the pro-Scottish independence Yes Scotland campaign said in a statement that this is a hugely encouraging poll for Yes - the highest in a regular ICM referendum poll so far.
