FIVE days are left before the Scottish people vote on whether to break away from the rest of Britain — and signs are that the turnout will be among the highest in British history.

Polling by Britain’s biggest trade union, Unite, suggests that over 90 per cent of the Scottish electorate will cast their votes — a level of participation never matched at a British general election. Indeed, the highest general election turnout this century was a mere 65.1 per cent.

For well over a decade more British citizens have decided not to vote than have opted for any political party. It’s natural that what could be an irrevocable decision attracts more interest than electing a government for a five-year term.

But the real reason for the disparity is a divorce between Westminster politics and the interests of working people which is every bit as acute in England and Wales as it is in Scotland.

The Yes Scotland campaign claims the predicted near-universal participation is the result of its enthusing the Scottish people.

Certainly Better Together has not enthused anyone. Much of the left will still vote No, but not out of any sympathy for a scaremongering and patronising campaign which has completely failed to grasp the nature of the debate in Scotland.

But if it were Yes Scotland alone that had engaged the attention of a people we would not be looking at such a knife-edge result, with Scots divided almost 50-50 on how to vote.

Independence is hardly a truly national cause in Scotland. When Norway voted on independence from Sweden in 1905, just 184 individuals voted against. In Scotland, by contrast, a victory for either side will alienate half the country.

If people are interested in the Scottish referendum it is not down to the official campaigns. 

The vision presented by Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party — despite leading a campaign in which many left-wing groups have participated —  barely deserves the name independence.

According to the First Minister, Scotland after a Yes vote would keep the queen, keep the pound, stay in the warmongering Nato alliance and the neoliberal European Union. 

The bulk of its economy would continue to be owned and controlled from outside Scotland. If anything, Scots would have less control over it since their ability to legislate over the City of London or Bank of England would disappear.

But what is Better Together’s alternative? The Labour Party has signally failed to indicate that it would take on the City or reverse the EU-wide “austerity” being rammed down our throats by the ruling class.

Nowhere in Britain are the Westminster or Holyrood parties offering working people the choice of booting out the spivs and speculators who drove the economy off the cliff in 2008 and have forced us to pay for their crisis.

In Scotland the public are engaged because a debate has sprung up outside the main campaigns — with groups such as the Red Paper Collective and Common Weal asking questions about people power and building an economy that works for the many rather than the few.

Pitting Scotland against England has rightly been seen as a distraction from the real struggle in Britain between the ruling class and workers.

A Yes vote will not liberate Scots and will weaken the hand of the British working class in challenging capitalist power.

But the task of the left from September 19 will be to fight for a real alternative across Britain whatever the referendum result — and the non-official debates taking place in Scotland aren’t a bad place to start.