David Cameron urges UK to stop Scotland independence

The prime minister said he was making his intervention because he wanted Scots to realise that people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were not looking the other way or walking on by. "It's so important for Scotland to realise that the rest of the family see this as a very important family decision," he told an audience at the velodrome in London's Olympic Park, according to The Guardian.
Cameron said all 63 million people in the UK had a voice in this year's historic referendum and urged people across the country to "pick up the phone" to friends and family in Scotland to urge them to vote against independence in September. After setting out the moral, economic, geopolitical and diplomatic arguments against Scottish independence, Cameron said there was "an emotional, patriotic case" that traditionally reticent Brits had been too reluctant to make.
Cameron is aware he is not the most persuasive voice in Scotland, but believes he cannot stay out of the argument and has chosen to raise the emotional stakes in the referendum. He admitted: "Some people have even advised me to stay out of this issue - and not to get too sentimental about the UK", but added: "I care far too much to stay out of it."
He said he would be making further speeches in Scotland in the coming months and taking the cabinet to Scotland, and wanted to set out his belief that the UK family would be diminished if the Scots took the irreversible decision to leave. The SNP said the speech reflected jitters in the no campaign and said it was despicable that Cameron had dragged in the emotion of British Olympic success to win an argument about independence.
But Cameron brushed aside the criticism, saying: "Sometimes we can forget just how big our reputation is, that the world over the letters 'UK' stand for unique, brilliant, creative, eccentric, ingenious. We come as a brand - a powerful brand.
"Separating Scotland out of that brand would be like separating the waters of the river Tweed and the North Sea. If we lost Scotland, if the UK changed, we would rip the rug from under our own reputation. The plain fact is we matter more in the world together.
"Our reach is about much more than military might - it's about our music, film, TV, fashion. The UK is the soft power superpower: you get teenagers in Tokyo and Sydney listening to Emeli Sandé; people in Kazakhstan and Taiwan watching BBC exports like Sherlock, written by a Scot a hundred years ago, played by an Englishman today, and created for TV by a Scotsman."
And he said he wanted his daughter to be able to read his favourite childhood book - HE Marshall's Our Island Story: A History of Britain for Boys and Girls from the Romans to Queen Victoria - which tells the "great, world-beating story" of the UK.
He said: "I passionately hope that my children will be able to teach their children the same - that the stamp on their passport is a mark of pride. That together, these islands really do stand for something more than the sum of our parts, they stand for bigger ideals, nobler causes, greater values.
"This is our home - and I could not bear to see that home torn apart. I love this country. I love the United Kingdom and all it stands for. And I will fight with all I have to keep us together."
In a warning to people who have so far given the referendum debate little attention, he said: "Centuries of history hang in the balance; a question mark hangs over the future of our United Kingdom.
"If people vote yes in September, then Scotland will become an independent country. There will be no going back."
Cameron said for him the best thing about the Olympics "wasn't the winning; it was the red, the white, the blue. It was the summer that patriotism came out of the shadows and into the sun. Everyone cheering as one for Team GB." He ended his speech with a plea to everyone in the UK to urge Scotland to stay: "I want to be clear to everyone listening. There can be no complacency about the result of this referendum. The outcome is still up in the air and we have just seven months to go. Seven months to do all we can to keep our United Kingdom as one. Seven months to save the most extraordinary country in history.
"And we must do whatever it takes. So to everyone in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; everyone, like me, who cares about the United Kingdom, I want to say this: you don't have a vote, but you do have a voice. Those voting are our friends, neighbours and family.
"You do have an influence. Get on the phone, get together, email, tweet, speak. Let the message ring out from Manchester to Motherwell, from Pembrokeshire to Perth, from Belfast to Bute, from us to the people of Scotland - let the message be this: we want you to stay."
Nicola Sturgeon, the deputy first minister of Scotland, said: "It is a mistake to mix politics and sport in this way. I welcome people in the rest of the UK like David Cameron being part of the debate, but he cannot have his cake and eat it. He cannot say 'I want to be part of the debate', but then say 'No, I am not prepared to come to Scotland and have a head-to-head debate with the first minister [Alex Salmond]'.
"If that continues to be his position, he does not have the courage of his convictions, he does not have the guts to come here and actually test his argument against the arguments of Alex Salmond, and the yes campaign.
"If David Cameron is still not prepared to do that but continue to deliver lectures from London, people will draw their own conclusions from that."
She added: "Now we are being love-bombed, so let us celebrate the bonds of history, culture and family in all parts of the UK - but that does not mean we should be governed from London."