EVEN as some foreign journalists were marvelling at the ability of a country to hold a reasonable debate and establish a process that could lead to independence, alarm was growing across Scotland at the prospect of the discussion being restricted to the options of independence or the status quo.
The emergence of a third force advocating the inclusion in the referendum of a question on extending the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament but stopping short of full-scale independence is a welcome development. Maximum devolution or "devo max" is a phrase that covers a wide range of possibilities and few can say with confidence exactly what it would encompass. The SNP sees it as the transfer of all tax and financial powers but there are many questions about the basis on which some of these would be made.
A question of civil society's role
EVEN as some foreign journalists were marvelling at the ability of a country to hold a reasonable debate and establish a process that could lead to independence, alarm was growing across Scotland at the prospect of the discussion being restricted to the options of independence or the status quo.
The emergence of a third force advocating the inclusion in the referendum of a question on extending the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament but stopping short of full-scale independence is a welcome development. Maximum devolution or "devo max" is a phrase that covers a wide range of possibilities and few can say with confidence exactly what it would encompass. The SNP sees it as the transfer of all tax and financial powers but there are many questions about the basis on which some of these would be made.
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Don't show me this again.