Sunday Herald becomes first newspaper to openly back Scottish independence

The headline of the article read: “The prize is a better country. It is as simple as that: why the Sunday Herald supports a Yes vote."

In its editorial, the Sunday Herald stated: No-one should find the decision easy. There is nothing simple, clean, or clinical about ending a union that has endured for better than three centuries. Nevertheless, having considered the arguments, the Sunday Herald sincerely and emphatically believes that the best outcome is a vote for independence.

“We state our opinion not in an attempt to persuade our readers. That would be presumptuous and arrogant. We are well aware that there is good reason to assume the vote will be close. However, we are determined, as the debate enters its final, feverish stages, when emotions will doubtless run high, to make our position clear.”

It continued: "We believe independence offers Scotland an historic opportunity to choose the kind of country that might allow its people to prosper. Decisions affecting our lives will be made on our doorstep, by the people who live here. By us. A vote for independence says that a small country is not helpless in a big, troubling world."

The article also stated that its position is not necessarily the position of the papers owners the Herald and Times Group, which includes sister titles the daily Herald and the Evening Times, but that the publisher has given its editors the freedom to decide on their own newspapers' position.

It cited a quote from Tim Blott, managing director of the Herald and Times group, who has said: "Our policy is to give individual editors the freedom to decide their own newspaper's position on this hugely important constitutional issue but our own official company stance will remain non-political and neutral in the independence debate.”