Scottish independence: Guest post; Alex Salmond is now a desperate man who sits and waits the polls to open, he isn't going to win, he can lie, he can deceive, he can refuse to answer questions, but what he can't dodge is his day of judgment

The greatest propaganda is the truth.

So said Josef Goebbels on hearing of the German surrender at Stalingrad, and he had the Nazi radio announce the truth for once, with dignity. It steadied the German nation and made them resolve to fight total war.

We tell the truth do we not?

Day in and day out we read lies, misinformation, deception and tricks carried out by unscrupulous people intent on implementing their mis-shapen schemes. And we dislike them for it.

In 1942 Frank Capra, one of Hollywood’s greatest directors was called in to Washington by George Marshall, then Chief of the General Staff; he wanted Capra to make a series of propaganda films to be shown to service personnel before they went into action. They were to countermand the effects of Nazi propaganda and motivate the combat troops with the knowledge that they fought for the right. Capra undertook to examine the problem and report back.

In two weeks Capra watched every Nazi propaganda film he could get his hands on and was overwhelmed by the scale of the task. A mighty fear swamped his wish to do something- that the thing he was looking at was so big and so mighty that his feeble efforts could do nothing against it.

Then he went back and told Marshall.

Marshall looked at him, reached into his desk, pulled out a cigar and lit it. Then he puffed a cloud of smoke into the air.

‘Mr Capra – I have boys in foxholes all over the world. I have men in airplanes, landing craft, tanks and on battlefields in every theatre of war, wounded, captured and dying.

And you tell me you can’t make a film?’

There was a very very long pause. Then Capra said;

“General – I’ll make you the best god-damn propaganda films ever made’.

And he did.

As Frank Herbert said, Fear is the mind killer- and so it is.

They look big. Their obstinacy, their intransigence and their stubborn fanaticism make ordinary mortals fear that they cannot be stopped.

But they can be.

They have lost the economic argument.
They lie all the time now.
They scaremonger and twist things.
They trample over government procedures.
They peculate public monies.
Their mendacity knows no bounds.
And they say they are winning!

Why should I believe that any more than I believe their other lies?

All they have left is the stupid, the illogical, the unwillingness to accept evidence. Dull as lead, arrogant ignorance and false hopes drummed up by false oilfields, imagined grievance and conspiracy.

No person with half a brain would vote for the catalogue of lies and stupidity on stilts that they have set out in their prospectus for the future of Scotland.

And Scots, by and large, are NOT renowned for their stupidity.

Are they?

Don’t be scared of these people. Please.

You have won. They know you have won and they become desperate.

I do not advocate complacency, but I have not the slightest doubt of the outcome of this- and on the 19th September the depths of their defeat will be plain. Not more than 1/3 of Scots will vote Yes; I believe this as I believe in the fundamental decency of our campaign.

Sock it to them guys.

They are going down!