EDINBURGH: Scotland will hold an independence referendum on September 18, 2014, to decide if its five million people should end a 300-year-old union and leave the United Kingdom.
First Minister Alex Salmond, announcing the date in the Scottish parliament yesterday, said a break of ties with London would give Scots the chance “to build a better country”.
Salmond’s pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) won a majority in the Scottish parliament in elections in May 2011.
But the SNP faces a hard battle to win the referendum — which will take place in the 700th anniversary year of the Battle of Bannockburn, a celebrated victory over the English.
Opinion polls put support for independence at about 30 percent of the Scottish electorate while 50 percent favour the status quo.
The SNP complains that the British parliament, where members representing Scotland are a small minority because England has a much bigger population of 53 million, does not have the interests of the Scottish people at heart.
The British parliament at Westminster in London exercises control over important government spending decisions and areas like defence.
The SNP says North Sea Oil revenues combined with the local farming, fishing and whisky industries would enable an independent Scotland to prosper. Its critics say its sums do not add up because oil reserves are dwindling and Scotland would lose the big share of taxpayer money raised across Britain that it receives.
REUTERS
