Alex Salmond sure Scots will back SNP and vote for independence

Leader reiterates referendum will ask two questions, one on full independence and the second on fiscal autonomy The Scottish nationalist leader, Alex Salmond, threw down the gauntlet to Labour on Sunday, challenging the party to devise an enhanced devolution plan to put to Scottish voters alongside the independence option in the referendum. He declared he was confident, though, that Scots would back independence in the referendum due before the next Holyrood elections, in 2016. “In my heart, in my head, I think Scotland will become an independent country within the European community, with a friendly, co-operative relationship with our partners in these islands,” Salmond told the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1. Salmond confirmed on Saturday, in his keynote speech to the SNP conference in Inverness, that the referendum, planned for the second half of the five-year Scottish parliament, will consist of two questions. On Sunday he gave more details. The first question would be “a straight yes-no question [on] independence,” the SNP leader said. Alongside this would be “a second question, in the same way as we did in 1997, in which we’d offer a fiscal autonomy option”. He added: “I’m not for limiting the choices of the Scottish people, I leave that to Westminster.” Salmond singled out Labour’s former first minister for Scotland, Henry McLeish, as a person sympathetic to the “devo max” alternative – to whose proposals the SNP would listen. The challenge from Salmond poses a strategic question for the Labour party in Scotland, which has still not recovered from the drubbing it received in May’s Scottish elections. Labour is devolving more autonomy to the Scottish party, which is choosing a new leader. Some senior Scottish Labour politicians have recently shown interest in exploring some sort of devo max proposal. But there is little agreement on details and any such plan would go far beyond Labour’s 1997 devolution settlement. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in Scotland also face dilemmas about devo max options, since the coalition at Westminster is introducing a more limited set of devolution changes in the Scotland bill. Salmond said on Saturday that the SNP would “campaign, full-square, for independence in the coming referendum”. Angus Robertson MP, who is director of the independence referendum campaign, revealed that the party had ringfenced a £918,000 legacy left by Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s former national poet, or Makar, for the independence campaign. But the decision to allow a second option, short of the party’s holy grail, has disconcerted some SNP activists in Inverness, who believe that devo max could prove a popular alternative for undecided voters and blunt the drive to full independence. Margo MacDonald, the former SNP MSP, who is now an independent, accused Salmond of “hedging his bets”, in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper , saying that there was “no need for a second question”. Opinion polls in Scotland show substantial majorities opposed to independence, though there has been some movement since the SNP landslide. Privately, some activists fear the economic downturn will make voters fearful of taking a leap into the dark with Scotland’s future. However, there were few signs of doubt at the conference over the past four days. The SNP was brimming with confidence. One strategist said: “We will win because we’ve got religion and our opponents have not.” Salmond hopes his party has the wherewithal to win the independence referendum. But he has shown this weekend that he is prepared for an alternative that would keep the SNP in the game if Scots vote no. Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, told the Andrew Marr Show: “The SNP have a mandate to get on with that referendum and they should stop shilly-shallying and get on with it.” The Nationalists had to answer some “big questions” about independence regarding issues including “currency, membership of the EU, and social security, pensions and so much else aside”. Murphy said: “It’s not enough to wave a flag and expect the people of Scotland to support breaking up the UK. It’s my country, it’s my flag, I’m a passionate Scot, I want what’s best for Scotland, and most people in Scotland believe what’s best for Scotland is remaining part of the UK and a big player in one of the most successful unions of nations ever seen on this Earth.” On currency, Salmond said an independent Scotland would keep sterling “until it was in Scotland’s economic advantage to join the euro – and that would be a decision of the Scottish people”. Scotland would also have its own army, navy and air force, he said, adding that “those armed forces would cooperate with our western allies in a range of engagements”. Scottish independence Scottish politics Scottish National party (SNP) Alex Salmond Scotland Labour Liberal Democrats Conservatives Martin Kettle guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 23, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.