All posts tagged Yes Scotland

Posted:
July 26, 2012
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Stuart Kelly: The big debate has stalled..

Stuart Kelly | The Scotsman

WITH only two years until the referendum on independence, the real questions are being ignored, writes Stuart Kelly

The Chinese phrase “May you live in interesting times” is well known. Slightly less well known is that it is a traditional curse. Nonetheless, we find ourselves living in interesting times in Scotland, with all the ambivalences that entails. The referendum in 2014 certainly counts as interesting, and yet the discussions around it thus far – from both sides of the political spectrum – have been anything but.

There was always going to be a certain degree of grandstanding and hyperbolism around the respective launches of “Yes Scotland” and “Better Together”, and it is a regrettable feature of contemporary politics that it aims more at the platitudinous soundbite than the complex argument. The fact remains that such a constitutional vote is complex, and if Scots are to be proud, or even content, with the result – whatever that transpires to be – then the intellectual calibre of the debate needs to rise significantly over the next year.

Read the full article at The Scotsman website

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Posted:
June 11, 2012
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Margo MacDonald snubs ‘Yes Scotland’ campaign..

ANDREW WHITAKER | The Scotsman

Patrick Harvie & Alex Salmond

ANOTHER high-profile supporter of Scottish independence has expressed fears that the SNP has seized full control of the “Yes Scotland” campaign, as major splits began to emerge in the movement.

Prominent nationalist Margo MacDonald said the campaign launched just over a fortnight ago was too heavily “aligned to a political party” – the SNP.

Her intervention came after the co-leader of the pro-independence Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, said his party was boycotting the Yes campaign, claiming that the SNP had taken control of “every key decision”.

Mr Harvie, who appeared alongside Mr Salmond at the campaign launch, said the “problem with Yes Scotland is that it is only them” [the SNP], as he said that party bosses had decided the timing of the launch and the appointment of staff, including that of Nationalist MP Angus Robertson as campaign director.

Ms MacDonald, who gave a recorded message of support via a video link at the campaign launch, revealed that she would not be joining “Yes Scotland”.

She added Mr Harvie had said what “a lot of people have been thinking and what I feared”.

Organisers of “Yes Scotland” insist the campaign is independent of the SNP, despite key figures working for the organisation who have been seconded from the party, such as Stephen Noon and Jennifer Dempsie.

Former Nationalist MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville has also been heavily involved in the early stages of the campaign, which has received nearly £1 million from SNP-supporting National Lottery winners Colin and Chris Weir, from Ayrshire, and a similar amount in a bequest to the party from the late Makar, Edwin Morgan.

Ms MacDonald said a “lack of planning” by the SNP had meant it had put its own supporters into crucial campaign roles, as she backed Mr Harvie’s concerns in what is now threatening to become a bitter row within the pro-independence lobby more than two years before the referendum in autumn 2014.

Read the full article at The Scotsman website

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Posted:
May 29, 2012
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All to play for at business end of the referendum..

Herald View

With the SNP’s best-known business supporters notable by their absence from last week’s Yes Scotland launch, a key issue for the campaign is whether business leaders who backed Alex Salmond in last year’s Holyrood election will be prepared to vote for independence.

The SNP’s narrow win in 2007 followed careful cultivation of the business community and publication of a list of 100 business supporters. One of the most prominent, Sir Tom Farmer, multi-millionaire founder of the Kwik-Fit chain, has now said that he does not support independence but favours more powers for the Scottish Parliament. Other high-profile SNP business supporters missing from the Yes Scotland line-up were Sir Brian Souter, the co-founder of Stagecoach who has contributed around £1 million to the party, Sir Tom Hunter and Jim McColl of Clyde Blowers, who has also previously championed fiscal but not political independence.

The most noteworthy endorsement for the SNP before last May’s election came from Sir David Murray, a committed Unionist who had supported the Conservatives at the 2010 General Election. His dramatic turnaround supporting greater fiscal powers for Scotland was accompanied by a statement that he remained in favour of the Union. This stance of backing Mr Salmond as an able First Minister while remaining opposed to his party’s defining principle of independence can be viewed as a short-term strategy. Nevertheless, as pragmatists who recognise the necessity of dealing with whichever party is in power, several entrepreneurs shared the view that the SNP, having demonstrated competence in Government, deserved another term in office. In some cases that support cooled with the announcement of a “supermarket tax” on large retailers, which did not go down well in the boardrooms of major companies. The prospect of lower corporation tax is obviously favoured by business but with most of Scotland’s trade being with the rest of the UK, there is concern about losing the advantages of a single market.

Posted:
May 28, 2012
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Divided they stand: The pursuit of Scottish independence..

Eddie Barnes | Scotland on Sunday

Yes campaign The launch of the Yes Scotland campaign saw some unlikely travelling companions hit the road together in pursuit of independence

PETER de Vink leaned forward and tapped his pro-independence comrade on the shoulder. Colin Fox turned and greeted his ally. For the first time, the right-wing, tax-cutting Conservative and the far-left, public ownership-supporting Socialist were on the same side.

Appropriately enough for such a fantasy encounter, the venue was a cinema. They were seated on Friday morning in the darkness of the soulless Cineworld multiplex off Edinburgh’s Western Approach Road, alongside 400 or so other independence supporters, all awaiting the start of the day’s entertainment.

There, in the dark, a coming-of-age ceremony of sorts was taking place. The cause of independence has always been under the sole care of the SNP. Over the last five years, since the party won power at Holyrood, it has, like a much-loved only child, been wrapped up and protected, spared from any cuts and bruises along the way. Last year’s election success has meant some quick growing up has been required. And, there in the cinema on Friday, the SNP gathered to wave it off on its journey into the world.

The launch of the Yes Scotland campaign marks the start of the two-and-a-half year campaign prior to the expected October 2014 date of the referendum. While the campaign is run by SNP activists and has the party’s muscle and organisational weight behind it, the campaign launched on Friday was not an SNP one. Rather, in order to show evidence of a broad church, it saw people from across the political spectrum united in their backing for the big idea. However, a church that contains both Fox and de Vink is a recipe for chaos.

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Posted:
May 25, 2012
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‘Yes’ campaign to be launched..

The BBC

The official campaign encouraging people to back Scottish independence in a referendum is being launched in Edinburgh later.

The Scottish National Party is playing a leading role in the “Yes Scotland” campaign, which will include other parties, celebrities and businesses.

There have been some concerns campaigning is starting too early with a referendum not likely until 2014.

A pro-union campaign is expected to launch later this year.

SNP ministers, who want to hold a referendum in autumn 2014, have been holding talks with the UK government over the arrangements.

Yes Scotland has been billed as the biggest community based campaign in Scotland’s history, designed to build a groundswell of support for an independent Scotland.

Read full article at The BBC website

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