YESTERDAY (Tuesday) marked the start of the one-year countdown to the independence referendum.

I have been to numerous meetings, to tens of Yes Local launches and attended and participated in debate after debate about the issues which will determine how people vote in the referendum.

I have watched the polls start to narrow and have seen the public begin to engage with what has seemed an almost interminably long campaign already.

This year will pass by quickly. The publishing of the Scottish Government white paper on independence will happen in November. It is hoped that it will provide a degree of clarity about what the SNP propose independence will look like and will tackle some of the genuine questions people have which need answered.

This is a momentous decision. It is the most important political decision any of us will ever make. For some it will be the first time they have ever voted as a young voter; or as an older voter who has never seen the value of voting for a party in a polarised political system.

I turned 32 last weekend. Almost exactly half my life time ago, Scotland voted at the second chance to embrace a YES/YES vote to devolution.

In the years since the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament we have seen a huge divergence in the policies progressed in Scotland than those of the rest of the UK (rUK).

I use the word progressed very determinedly. Successive Scottish governments – whether they have been a Labour-Lib coalition or the SNP – have made bold and brave choices about what to protect and prioritise in Scotland.

This has meant fundamentally different Labour or Lib Dem policy in Scotland than in the rUK. This has been a great thing for us in Scotland.

Some of those decisions of successive governments are the smoking ban; free personal care for the elderly; the abolition of the Labour-introduced student tuition fees; free prescriptions, the protection of the NHS and the coming equal marriage representation. Our governments have shown themselves to be more socially just.

We stand at a crossroads. We have a choice of two paths. This year will either change everything, or nothing will change, things will continue to slide. That is the stark choice in front of us.

We have shown through devolved government that where we have the powers we make different choices; we make better choices.

However, the Scottish Government has a set and shrinking budget. With the English NHS all but heading for complete internal privatisation and English students leaving university with debts in excess of £30,000, the knock-on effect to the Scottish budget will soon take its toll.

It will become impossible to constantly mitigate the decisions taken at Westminster. We are a rich country which can afford to be more entrepreneurial, more inventive and more socially just.

For the first time in generations there is the real possibility our kids could grow up with less than us.

I am not comfortable about looking them in the eye and telling them we had a real chance to make a different choice but didn’t.

It will be an interesting year.