UK promising more powers for Scotland as ‘Yes’ vote rises
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THE British government is scrambling to respond to a surge in the opinion polls toward a vote for Scottish independence this month by promising a range of new powers for Scotland if it chooses to stay in the United Kingdom.
Finance minister George Osborne said yesterday that plans would be set out in the coming days to give Scotland more autonomy on tax, spending and welfare if there is a vote against independence in a September 18 referendum.
Prime Minister David Cameron had vetoed a third ballot option for greater devolution, betting that the stark choice of yes or no would deliver a clear victory for the status quo.
That looked like a precarious calculation after a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times showed supporters of independence had taken their first opinion poll lead since the referendum campaign began.
With less than two weeks before the vote, the poll put the “Yes” to independence campaign on 51 percent and the “No” camp on 49 percent, overturning a 22-point lead for the unionist position in just a month.
“You will see in the next few days a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland ... Then Scotland will have the best of both worlds. They will both avoid the risks of separation but have more control over their own destiny, which is where I think many Scots want to be,” Osborne told the BBC.
“More tax-raising powers, much greater fiscal autonomy ... more control over public expenditure, more control over welfare rates and a host of other changes.”
Osborne said the changes, being agreed by all three major parties in the British parliament, would be put into effect the moment there was a ‘no’ vote in the referendum.
Scotland already enjoys a large measure of devolution, having had its own parliament since 1999 with the power to legislate in areas such as education, health, the environment, housing and justice.
Further devolution, often referred to as “devo max,” could see all powers handed over to Scotland except defense and foreign affairs. Polls have previously shown many would favor this over independence, and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond had pushed to have it as an option on the ballot paper.
Nicola Sturgeon, deputy leader of the Scottish National Party, welcomed the YouGov poll as a “very significant moment” in the campaign but rejected talk of more devolved powers for Scotland.
“I don’t think people are going to take this seriously. If the other parties had been serious about more powers, then something concrete would have been put forward before now and remember the other parties were desperate to keep that option off the ballot paper,” she told Sky news.
Salmond described the plans as a “panic measure.”
“This is a ridiculous position being put forward by a campaign ... in terminal trouble,” he told the BBC. “They have failed to scare the Scots, now they are trying to bribe us. That won’t work either because people have come to the realization that we can take the future of this country into our hands.”
After months of surveys showing nationalists heading for defeat, recent polls have seen the gap narrow to the extent they raise the real prospect independence could be achieved.
YouGov chief Peter Kellner wrote on his blog: “A two-point gap is too small for us to call the outcome. But the fact that the contest is too close to call is itself remarkable, as Better Together seemed to have victory in the bag.”
He added: “In the past four weeks support for the union has drained away at an astonishing rate. The Yes campaign has not just invaded No territory; it has launched a blitzkrieg.”
A separate poll commissioned by the pro-independence campaign shows support for a breakaway still short of a majority at 48 percent.
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