Scottish independence: Alex Salmond claims ‘relationship of equals’ possible under independence

SCOTLAND and England would be part of a “positive relationship of equals” under indepdence, Alex Salmond claimed this morning.

He also repeated claims that David Cameron snubbed calls to talks half a dozen times in the last six months.

The First Minister also branded calls for an English parliament debating laws which affect only English voters “thoroughly sensible” and demanded “a new and better, adult, grown-up relationship of equals between Scotland and England”.

The SNP leader said said: “We will share a monarch, we will share a currency and, under our proposals, we will share a social union, but we won’t have diktats from Westminster for Scotland.”

He added: “There have been a lot of rather injudicious things said by Westminster politicians about Scotland.

“I will be a lot more positive about the future of England than people like David Cameron have been hitherto about the future of Scotland.”

Mr Salmond, who launches a consultation on Wednesday about how the 2014 referendum will run, blasted claims Scottish taxpayers would be forced to fund cleaning up waste left behind if Britain’s nuclear Trident submarines had to quit their base at Faslane on the Clyde under SNP plans for a nuclear-free Scotland.

“Clearly an independent Scotland wouldn’t want to have the largest concentration of weapons of mass destruction in the continent of Europe,” he said.

“What’s unreasonable is the Defence Secretary saying, ‘We will land you with a bill for the clean-up costs’.

“You can’t have weapons of mass destruction based in Scotland for the last 60 years and then tell the people of Scotland, ‘We will give you a bill for the clean-up costs’.