Salmond: butt out Cameron

Scottish Political Editor

Sunday 23 October 2011

ALEX Salmond yesterday fired the starting gun on the SNP's independence campaign by warning David Cameron not to interfere with a Holyrood referendum on separation.

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SNP CONFERENCE BY SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR TOM GORDON

In a blistering personal attack on the Prime Minister, Salmond told him not to run a rival referendum from Westminster, and accused him of utterly failing to understand Scotland.

Addressing a record 1600 delegates at the SNP conference in Inverness, the First Minister said: “No politician, and certainly no London politician, will determine the future of the Scottish nation.” Scotland, he said, should have “nae limits” to its ambitions or opportunities.

The warning came amid reports that Cameron is considering running a referendum from London, if he can persuade Labour to join the Tories and Liberal Democrats in a grand Unionist alliance.The Prime Minister wants an early ballot with a simple yes/no question, which he believes he can win, rather than multiple choices in three or four years’ time, as planned by the SNP.Cameron claims delay and uncertainty is damaging Scotland and deterring investment.But in an emotionally charged speech, Salmond quoted the man who led the fight for Irish home rule in the 1880s, Charles Stewart Parnell, who said: “No man has the right to fix the boundary of a nation; no man has the right to say to his country, ‘Thus far shall thou go and no further’.”Salmond continued: “The Prime Minister should hear this loud and clear. The people of Scotland – the sovereign people of Scotland – are now in the driving seat.“The days of Westminster politicians telling Scotland what to do or what to think are over. The Scottish people will set the agenda for the future.” Salmond said he would bring a refreshed “Claim of Right” to the Scottish Parliament for a vote next month, to establish that the final say on a referendum lies with Holyrood.The original Claim of Right in 1988, backed by Labour, the LibDems and SNP, paved the way for devolution by asserting “the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs”.The new Claim will be a simple motion, but it will allow Salmond, with the SNP’s majority, to argue that Holyrood’s will is for a Scottish-run referendum. The First Minister attacked Cameron over last week’s announcement that the UK Government would not pay £1 billion to save a pioneering new carbon storage plant at Longannet in Fife.“Not even one 10th of one year of oil and gas revenues to secure a world lead in a planet-saving technology. Mr Cameron, how little you understand Scotland.” Also on energy, Salmond said the Treasury had “coined in some £300bn” from Scottish oil and gas since the 1970s, with a further £230bn in the pipeline. “London has had its turn out of Scottish oil and gas. Let the next 40 years be for the people of Scotland.” Salmond peppered his speech with a series of pledges, including £18m for marine energy, 1000 new training places in green industries, and 12 new schools.He also revealed some of the £1m bequeathed to the SNP by the poet Edwin Morgan would be used to fund the referendum campaign. But it was the personal attacks on Cameron that stood out.Capitalising on the Prime Minister’s ratings slide, it appears the First Minister had found his bogey man for the referendum campaign.Since May’s election, a series of opposition MPs and Lords have called for a swift and simple referendum run by Westminster to shoot the SNP fox. However, such a plan would be fraught with danger for Cameron.Salmond would portray any intervention by London as colonial meddling, and it could provoke a backlash in Scotland.More importantly, a Westminster referendum would be constitutionally binding, whereas one run from Edinburgh would only be consultative and subject to negotiations. If Scots voted Yes in a Westminster referendum, the decision would be final.But if they voted Yes in a Holyrood referendum, the UK government could still try to water down Salmond’s demands in negotiations, then seek a second, confirmation ballot after the talks. Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, said Salmond was delaying the referendum because he was “terrified” of defeat.Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: “Alex Salmond is behaving like some latter day Pictish Chief howling down anyone who is for the United Kingdom as being against Scotland. There are hundreds of thousands of Scots who do not support his separatist agenda; it’s high time he let them express their views in a referendum.”The people of Scotland – the sovereign people of Scotland – are now in the driving seat

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Salmond: butt out Cameron

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