Revealed: what SNP wants to ask Scots voters – if it ever gets the chance

Published on Thursday 25 February 2010 21:45

ALEX Salmond has published the two-question referendum that he hopes will deliver his dream of an independent Scotland.

• A smiling First Minister with the new document. Picture: PA

The SNP government's draft referendum bill included the first sight of the wording of the two questions to be put to the Scottish people, assuming the legislation ever gets through parliament.

The first ballot paper would offer the electorate the chance of voting for or against more powers for the Scottish Parliament that fall short of full independence.

On a second ballot paper, voters would be asked to say either "Yes, I agree" or "No, I do not agree" to an extension of powers that would "enable independence to be achieved".

The draft bill will be put out to public consultation for nine weeks, meaning it will not be considered by MSPs until after the UK general election, a ploy the First Minister hopes will increase its chances of success at Holyrood.

At the launch of the draft bill yesterday, he confirmed the SNP would campaign for a "Yes, Yes" vote and said:

"This will offer the options of enhanced devolution. It will offer the option of the powers to enable Scotland to become an independent country – the policy of the SNP government."

The government's background notes described independence as Scotland receiving the "rights and responsibilities of a normal, sovereign state".

Critics suggested such language was biased in favour of breaking up the UK. "The questions are loaded with innuendo," a Tory spokesman said. "But it doesn't matter because the bill will fail."

Mr Salmond accepted the main opposition parties had "set their faces" against his proposals. But he maintained the political landscape would change after the general election, increasing the appetite for a referendum. His "hope and expectation" was that the bill could be introduced at Holyrood before the summer recess.

Last night, there was no let-up in opposition to the referendum. Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray called the bill "nothing more than Alex Salmond's doomed vanity project", while the Tories'

Annabel Goldie said: "He (Salmond] should ditch this bill, stop wasting taxpayers' time and money, and get on with what he was elected to do – namely helping the country deal with the legacy of Labour's debt crisis."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott said the SNP had "put the politics of narrow Nationalism ahead of the interests of Scotland".

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I think this obsession with a constitution by the Nationalists runs contrary to everything that we're hearing in Scotland.

"People want to get jobs created, they want to make sure that public services are here, they want to hold governments to account for what they're doing, and I think this diversion, this constitutional obsession that it's always about separation, is not really what people are thinking about."

Given the current position of the opposition parties, the bill will struggle to get through Holyrood, leaving the SNP's pledge to deliver a referendum by the end of this year looking hollow.

The 84-page document, titled Scotland's Future: Draft Referendum (Scotland) Bill Consultation Paper, suggested the vote should be extended to 16- and 17-year-olds and took care not to specify a date for the poll.

The SNP paper also outlined two options for the first question. One version would give the public the chance for vote for "full devolution" – a constitutional settlement that has been nicknamed DevoMax. Under that option, Holyrood would be responsible for all laws, taxes and duties in Scotland, leaving Westminster in charge of defence, foreign affairs and monetary policy.

The second option would be the more limited form of devolution envisaged by the Calman Commission, the body set up by Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems to look at the constitutional question. It recommended Holyrood should have the power to vary Scottish income tax by up to 10p in the pound from the UK rate. It also called for powers to set stamp duty and land tax.

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