The majority of Scots think the SNP government is wasting public money trying to persuade voters to back independence, a new opinion poll has said.
A YouGov survey of 1,073 adults showed that 56% of respondents thought that promoting the recently published white paper through leaflets, billboard posters and newspaper adverts was a “bad use” of taxpayers’ cash.
A total of 34% of respondents believed spending money on the independence blueprint was a good use of public funds, while 10% said they did not know.
The poll showed that 50% of people thought the Scottish Government was spending too much money on the independence referendum, which is being held on September 18.
A total of 9% of respondents said too little money was being spent, 25% said just the right amount was being spent while 17% said they did not know.
The survey was commissioned by the pro-UK campaign group Better Together and carried out between December 17-19.
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the poll should act as a “wake-up call” to the Scottish Government, which he believes has its priorities wrong.
“People in Scotland want their taxes to be invested in jobs, education and skills, not on propaganda for Alex Salmond’s obsession with independence,” he added.
Mr Rennie said the Scottish Government had rebuffed his calls for investment in colleges, school meals and nursery education.
“Instead Alex Salmond has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on adverts for the White Paper and his independence plans,” he added.
“It would seem he is living on a different planet to the rest of us.”
The launch event for the government’s white paper on independence at Glasgow Science Centre on November 26 cost the public purse £12,432.
Finance Secretary John Swinney has said the total cost of the independence referendum would be about £13.7million, with £800,000 of that being spent this year and the rest in 2014-15.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the cost of the public information campaign was £450,000 and it was not yet clear what the total cost of the white paper would be due to demand for copies.