Scottish referendumn

England and Scotland – growing farther apart anyway?

| Readers 85

Good to see some real debate emerging over the Scottish independence at last.  But is this happening to late, when the result is all over bar the shouting, with the No vote 20 points ahead, as American polling guru Nate Silver has been telling them at the Edinburgh Festival? Not so with 44 % registering undecided, according to Ipsos Mori. Looking behind the stats, commentators warn against relentless negativity from the Better Together campaign, including Andrew Marr recovering from his stroke, …

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Deal announced on Scottish referendum

| Readers 55

The deal between the UK and Scottish governments on the referendum is done and will be sealed on Monday.  The Scotland Office and the SNP government seem to have jumped the gun on Downing St by announcing  agreement on a single “yes, no question,” but with votes for 16 year olds added, if the Scottish Parliament approves. That detail might be thought to favour the “yes” camp if you believe kids favour change pretty automatically. There’ll be lots of detail to fight …

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Olympics fever shows that a soft sell is best for the Union cause

| Readers 54

Now here’s a great campaigner for the Union, no?  With his keen nose for an impending win as sharp as ever Gorgeous George brazens out an embarrassing prediction of Olympic failure and turns to his advantage.  You can almost hear that stingingly precise articulation cutting through the print. I underestimated just how much we would all enjoy the London Olympics and how, from Land’s End to John O’Groats, we would all feel together again. As I say, a good time for a …

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Pro Union campaign on the back foot without a decision on devo more

| Readers 49

Appropriately enough, caution greeted Alistair Darling’s launch of Better Together, the  pro Union multiparty campaign to counter the  SNP and challenge the notion that extends well beyond the pro- independence ranks, that Alex Salmond is  head and shoulders above all possible rivals.  So far, not too bad.   “Better Together” sounds more positive than  “No Independence” – (even though the title unfortunately clashes with a Scottish NHS monitoring website.) Alan Cochrane, the Union’s greatest champion in the London press agreed the …

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Will the referendum debate go two way at last today?

| Readers 46

Adds at 2pm. David Cameron’s speech ( in full here, courtesy of the Scotsman) was a constipated affair. Like Eric Morecambe and the Grieg piano concerto, he played all the right notes but not necessariily in the right order – and without enough colour and tone . He talked nervously into the middle distance, not to the single Scottish listener waiting to be lifted.  What was missing was the emotional pull to counter Alex Salmond’s deft and cunning patriotism.  Content wise, he sounded prepared still to …

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Will Scottish football decide the referendum?

| Readers 74

Is Scotland’s football team good enough for independence? Let’s look at the facts by comparing electoral support for independence, in so far as that can be measured as support for the SNP, with the performance of the Scottish football team. A number of points are worthing noting here: Qualifying for the finals of tournaments in the 1950s didn’t coincide with any major electoral success on the part of the SNP as, coincidentally, it wasn’t until the late 1960s that there …

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David Cameron has transformed the SNP’s long game of Scottish independence into a penalty shootout

| Readers 63

      David Cameron has hugely raised the stakes over Scottish independence by planning to give the Scottish Parliament legal powers to hold a binding referendum, provided it takes place within a tighter time frame than that envisaged by the SNP government. See the chess analysis by the doyen of Scots commentators Magnus Linklater in the Times (£, unfortunately) If this were a game of chess, the Prime Minister would probably be judged to have used yesterday the King’s Indian …

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