Alistair Darling takes his fight to save the Union to the north of Scotland He deflected flattery, telling one speaker, "Never mind that I was chancellor, I refer you to a more reliable source, the Institute of Fiscal studies," and, in a moment of reasonableness, pointed out to his left-leaning audience that in 1955 half of Scots voted Tory. Four years ago, Alastair Campbell said of Mr Darling that he was not dull, he was "just not flamboyant," adding: "It is not the same thing. He is a serious sober character at a time they are needed in plenty. The same thought occurred to one friendly charity official who remarked that he was the "perfect man" to prevent the break-up of Britain. His mantra - whether to charity officials, veterans at the British Legion club on the banks of the River Ness or the Chamber of Commerce - was that independence was for life, not just 2014. Mr Darling espoused three good reasons to vote No - the economy, influence (through membership of the EU, for example), and emotion. He did not use the word "stupid," but he began each visit by declaring: "It's the economy." "It's about jobs," he added, in that strikingly neutral tone most of us know best from budget days of old. We are part of the oldest and longest-lasting single market that there is. England is by far our biggest customer for our goods and services, and it actually matters that there is no barrier between north and south. At a time like this, with so much economic uncertainty, I don't want to put any barrier at all in people's minds that they might choose not to be here. He pointed out that the Edinburgh pensions industry sold 94 per cent of its products to England, and raised the so far understated issue of the National Lottery. After separation we could continue to play, but would a foreign Lotto fund multi-million projects north of the border? On the "emotion" of the issue, his modulation barely changing, he said: "I feel passionately about being Scots, and I feel equally passionate about being British, and I don't see why I should have to choose between the two of them." Mr Darling conceded Scotland could be an independent country - "I am not saying it would be North Korea" - but asked his audience to keep pressing Alex Salmond for answers to key economic questions. Some of the two dozen veterans who turned out told him he had failed to fix the A9, failed the Scottish regiments and suggested North Sea oil could fund a brave new world (only in the short term, said Mr Darling). But if he was particularly pleased by the contribution of a Royal Navy veteran, he managed not to show it. The elderly SNP opponent said: "Mr Salmond worries me, he is a very slippery customer as all salmon are, and teamed up with Sturgeon that makes for a very fishy partnership." Mr Darling confessed he was "not Salmond's greatest fan," and issued a warning that the referendum would be a long haul. "Election campaigns in this country classically last between four weeks, if you are lucky, and six weeks if you are very unlucky, and after that most people switch off and think, "Thank God that is over for another five years,"" he said. This one is going to last two years and it will be a challenge for both sides to hold people's attention, but it is critically important we do. It's the biggest single decision we will take on behalf of ourselves, our children and our grandchildren to come. Serious business indeed. But when he ended his visit at the offices of the Inverness Courier, it may also have occurred to him that its readers are currently far more concerned about the fate of Terry Butcher, manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, than the future of the Union.