Referendum round-up: Start-up costs | Celebrities
TODAY’S MAIN NEWS:
Alex Salmond has written to David Cameron calling for an investigation into UK Treasury claims that setting up an independent Scottish state could cost around £2.7bn.
In other news, the Daily Telegraph report that families with two earners face a £550 hike in their tax bills under Scottish government plans for a local income tax, and both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ camps have received unlikely celebrity endorsements in the last 24 hours.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHolywood film star Elijah Wood has called for Scotland to “go for it” on independence, while comedian Stanley Baxter has urged Scots to vote No.
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
Our Scottish independence site showcases some of the best comment, analysis and opinion from across the web; here are some of our favourites so far today.
• Professor John Curtice told our independence site that the main impact of celebrity endorsements is an increase in media coverage, but that big-name backers don’t necessarily win votes.
• The Guardian’s Severin Carrell looks at the behind-the-scenes machinations that brought about the debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling.
• The debate around Scottish independence can reinvigorate left-wing politics across the whole of the UK, according to Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh writing in the London Evening Standard.
• Writing exclusively for our independence site, David Miles - Associate Fellow at the Centre for Global Constitutionalism - suggests that confusion over what independence will mean has done a disservice to Scottish voters.
• Referendum expert Matt Qvortup considers whether former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown may be making a flawed case in favour of the union in his new book.