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TARIQ ALI is not your average supporter of independence.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1943, he enrolled at Oxford University in the early 1960s, then rose to prominence as a leading opponent of the Vietnam War, organising marches and speaking at rallies across Britain.

By the end of the decade, he was a celebrity – Mick Jagger is even reputed to have penned the classic Rolling Stones track Street Fighting Man about him.

Now 70, Ali is the author of two dozen books and remains one of the best-known left-wing thinkers in the country.

And, on Friday, he will deliver two lectures, one in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow, explaining why he believes Scots should vote Yes on September 18.

Speaking in his home in north London, he said: “I’ve always felt that Scotland would be better off without the incubus of so-called ‘Great’ Britain.

“The combination of the end of the British Empire and the utter degeneration of the Labour Party means Scotland has absolutely nothing to gain from staying within the Union.

“My hope is that independence will create spaces of critical thought in England as well as in Scotland because people down here are very depressed and demoralised too.”

Ali is scathing of the main Westminster parties, which he says are now basically indistinguishable from one another.

He added: “Look at Ed Balls and George Osborne. They are very happy to stand together to denounce Scottish independence.

“They’d be happy to serve together in the same Cabinet. The bulk of the parliamentary Labour Party could easily support the Coalition Government.

“I hope the Tory and New Labour attacks on the SNP become more and more outrageous. Every time Osborne opens his mouth, support for independence goes up a few percentage points.”

A close friend of the late socialist thinker Ralph Miliband – Labour leader Ed’s father – Ali was once sympathetic to Labour. But he turned against the party during the Blair years – and rejects their claim that independence would shatter British working class unity.

Ali said: “Ed Miliband is scared of his own shadow. New Labour won’t even defend the welfare state. In fact, they began to privatise it, along with education.”

“So as far as I’m concerned, these old Labourist arguments [about working class unity] have no purchase at all.

“There is little unity in England alone. The trade unions are politically weak, constantly under attack from the media and hardly defended by the party they created.”

Although Ali seems impressed by Alex Salmond, he is critical of the SNP’s support for Nato, the monarchy and the pound.

He added: “Salmond is a clever politician but he’s too caught up in the stale politics of neoliberalism. The SNP won’t even come out for a republic. They support Nato. I see a danger in that.

“I think they should say to Westminster, ‘If you don’t want a currency union, we’ll have a Scottish central bank that issues a separate

Scottish currency.’ It’s no use prevaricating on these issues.

“In my opinion, for them to win the referendum, they have to show people how different Scotland could be after independence. They have to inspire people with the idea of a modern republic.”

Ali believes a No vote would have dire consequences for Scotland, leaving the country exposed to a decade or more of Westminster-imposed

public spending cuts.

He said: “If the referendum fails, Scots will feel defeated and Westminster will treat them as such.

“Whoever wins the 2015 election, it will be more of the same – wars abroad, austerity at home.

“But if the referendum succeeds and Scotland becomes independent, it will open up a public debate about the future. The people will have a lot of expectations. That is when the fun begins.”

Ali will speak as part of the Radical Independence Campaign Lectures Series in Edinburgh and Glasgow on Friday.