JK Rowling donates US$1.68m to campaign to keep Scotland in UK
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JK Rowling, Britain’s best-selling author and creator of teenage wizard Harry Potter, has donated 1 million pounds (US$1.68 million) to the campaign against Scottish independence, saying yesterday she believed Scotland was better off staying in the UK.
Rowling lives in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh where she wrote the first of the Potter series in a local cafe and will be among about four million Scottish residents to decide on September 18 whether to end the 307-year link to England.
Rowling said she was concerned about the economic impact of going alone, with Scotland’s oil and gas reserves being depleted and an ageing population, becoming the latest celebrity to wade into the increasingly heated debate.
“The more I have read from a variety of independent and unbiased sources, the more I have come to the conclusion that while independence might give us opportunities — any change brings opportunities — it also carries serious risks,” she wrote on her website.
Rowling said she knew her stance might put her in the firing line of a fringe of aggressive nationalists whom she compared to Death Eaters, followers of Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort.
“While a few of our fiercer nationalists might like to drive me forcibly over the border after reading this, I’d prefer to stay and contribute to a country that has given me more than I can easily express,” she wrote.
“I just hope with all my heart that we never have cause to look back and feel that we made a historically bad mistake.”
A spokesman for the Better Together campaign confirmed Rowling had donated 1 million pounds to the fight to keep Scotland in the UK which is the biggest donation yet to the pro-union campaign that is leading in opinion polls.
Celebrity voices
The largest donation to the team fighting for independence has come from Britain’s biggest lottery winners, Scottish couple Colin and Chris Weir, who have given about 3.5 million pounds from their 2011 winnings of 161 million pounds.
Rowling, who was born in England but has lived in Scotland for 21 years, first went public with her opposition to Scottish independence in 2012 but her statement yesterday spelled out her thinking.
She said she believed Scotland was more powerful in global markets as part of the union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland and was concerned about Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK if it broke away.
“If we leave ... there will be no going back. This separation will not be quick and clean: it will take microsurgery to disentangle three centuries of close interdependence, after which we will have to deal with three bitter neighbors,” she wrote.
Other celebrities publicly to oppose independence include singer David Bowie who appealed to Scotland to stay with the UK at an awards ceremony in February and Scottish comedian Billy Connolly who said it was a time to stay together.
But other big Scottish names backing independence include James Bond actor Sean Connery, a long-term nationalist who said independence was too good an opportunity to miss.
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