East Lothian is a county that knows only too well the pain and suffering caused by a geographically and ideologically remote government.

The sight of Malcolm Rifkind, one of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet ministers, an architect of the poll tax and many other policies which devastated our coalfield communities, sharing a platform with Labour’s Iain Gray this month in Haddington shocked and surprised many.

But it’s broadly symptomatic of a malaise at the very heart of the outdated and out-of-touch system of politics venerated by UK parties.

Political parties that voters can barely tell apart any more, urging voters to have faith that the next time their particular party is in power in Westminster it’ll all be better. That the next time they won’t go back on their word. The next time they will fix the things they didn’t do the last time or undo the damage that has been done by their opposition this time.

Well, it just simply isn’t good enough anymore and it’s time for real and tangible change. It’s time to have our politicians close at hand and hold them to proper account.

For two and half years, Yes campaigners from all walks of life, from all political parties and none have spent thousands of hours discussing, debating and describing a different future; a future where we put bairns before bombs, where we can be permanently rid of the right-leaning, ‘me-first’ governments that have been in charge of our country even though, since 1955, we’ve consistently and overwhelmingly voted for left-leaning governments; a future where we will always get the government we choose.

Following a yes vote, we will never again fear the implementation of policies by politicians that we never voted for. We will never have another bedroom tax foisted upon us by an out-of-touch, Eton-educated political elite. We will be forever rid of the UK’s most exclusive gravy train, the unelected House of Lords, with its 774 members each earning £300 per day. We will protect our NHS, unlike in England and Wales, where it is “up for sale” according to Labour’s Andy Burnham.

We will look after those in real need and our older citizens with an improved welfare and pensions system and nurture our young, by reforming childcare and providing free places at university dictated by the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.

We will do this to provide a shining beacon for other countries to follow. We will do this because that is the sort of country that most Scots aspire to live in. And, after two and a half years of questions, debates and discussions, we will do all of this in the full and certain knowledge that it can be done, should be done and must be done to create a better, fairer society in Scotland.

In a few days we’ll go to the ballot boxes on the single most significant political question of a generation. We are faced with a simple enough choice – whether our principal seat of government should be in Edinburgh or London – but it’s a decision which will define Scottish society and culture for decades to come and resonate across the globe.

Jim Sillars has famously pointed out that Scotland is effectively sovereign during polling on September 18 and by 10.01pm we’ll have decided if we’re brave enough to rejoin the world or if we’ll be the first ever nation to reject independence through fear.

So when the time comes, be bold, have courage. Trust your neighbours, trust your family but, most of all, trust yourself and vote yes for all of our futures.