By a Newsnet reporter 
Anti-independence parties have been urged to abandon plans to use the ‘Better Together’ slogan for the No campaign after it emerged it is already in use.
As exclusively revealed by Newsnet Scotland yesterday, the slogan has been used to spearhead an NHS Scotland patient programme for over four years.
By a Newsnet reporter
Anti-independence parties have been urged to abandon plans to use the ‘Better Together’ slogan for the No campaign after it emerged it is already in use.
As exclusively revealed by Newsnet Scotland yesterday, the slogan has been used to spearhead an NHS Scotland patient programme for over four years.
The blunder by the No campaign emerged after newspaper reports confirmed ‘Better Together’ was to be the group’s official slogan.
However it emerged that Better Together was introduced by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon in February 2008 as part of a drive aimed at supporting Scotland’s NHS Boards, frontline staff and patients in driving forward service improvement.
Bizarrely, the initiative was first announced in March 2007 by Labour’s then Health Minister Andy Kerr.
The No campaign is now facing calls to scrap its plan to use the phrase ‘Better Together’.
Glasgow Cathcart SNP MSP James Dornan said the people of Scotland deserved honesty on how the No camp sees a future Scotland. Mr Dornan accused the No campaign of hiding behind a phrase already in use because they have nothing new to offer.
Mr Dornan said:
“The No Campaign, which says we are better together with a Tory Government, must scrap its plan to use that slogan as it is already in use by NHS Scotland.
“The anti-independence parties owe it to the people of this country to present them with a vision for Scotland’s future – not copy slogans already used because they have nothing new to offer.”
The slogan appears on the NHS Scotland website and is printed on official documentation and reports produced by the NHS and the Scottish Government.
A company “Better Together 2012 Ltd” has been registered with Companies House by the anti-independence campaign.
The directors of the new company are Labour MP Alistair Darling, former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie, Labour MSPs Jackie Ballie and Richard Baker and former Scottish Lib Dem convener Craig Harrow.
