Support for separation rises, as Unionists ‘asleep on job’

In a speech in the Lords today, Lord McConnell will call for political parties and businesses to come together in something similar to the Constitutional Convention which led to devolution, to make the positive case for Scotland to remain in the UK “as part of a partnership of nations”.

The former Scottish Labour leader’s words come as the pro-independence camp edged ahead by the narrowest margin of 39 per cent to 38 per cent, according to the TNS-BMRB poll, while almost a quarter of Scots are undecided.

Labour peer Lord George Foulkes, a former MSP, will today put forward an amendment to the Scotland Bill to make the UK government call a referendum by 2013.

But Lord McConnell told The Scotsman: “The problem is that there is only one party in the race at the moment. The pro-Union parties are asleep on the job. My fear is that they will leave it until the last lap, which could be too late, and that they could lose the referendum. We are in danger of giving the pacemaker too much of a start.”

Lord McConnell will be speaking in the debate on the Scotland Bill, which will bring new powers to Scotland. However, given the SNP’s majority victory in Holyrood in May, he believes the debate has moved on between “two fundamentally different visions” for Scotland.

“There is the one of supporting devolution in a partnership of nations and what the other side want which is total independence for Scotland,” he said.

He will say that it is good that an attempt at imposing a “1950s idea of Britishness” has been dropped, but says the Yes to the Union campaign can learn from history pointing to the Constitutional Convention, on which he served between 1992 and 1998.

“The 1970s and 1980s had unsuccessful campaigns for devolution, but the 1990s, after the different parties and civic Scotland came together, delivered devolution,” he said. “We need to do something similar to make the positive case about Scotland making decisions for itself but also for the benefits of being part of the UK.”

The findings of the latest poll have also prompted fresh calls for First Minister Alex Salmond to spell out what he means by an independent Scotland, amid speculation that the SNP could settle for an “independence-lite” option, which could see Scotland sharing military bases and foreign embassies with the UK.

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore and Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander, both senior Scottish Lib Dem ministers, have attacked the cost of independence over the past week.

But Mr Salmond said: “Clearly, the attacks on independence in recent days from the Tory and Lib Dem UK government – far from making a positive case for the Union – have backfired badly and boomeranged on them.

“The UK government has so far refused to respect the result of the Scottish election in May, in terms of the need for more powers, and have resorted to recycling old scare stories instead.

“The fact that negative campaigning does not work was one of the essential lessons of the recent Scottish election, but the Unionist parties do not seem to have learned from that. The more Scotland is talked down to, the more the people of Scotland will set their sights on a better future.”

The poll does indicate that the decline in opposition is reflected more in a shift to “undecided” than to “support”. The last time the Yes campaign edged ahead in the polls was in spring 2008, but the No vote led by 15 points by November 2009.

Labour leader Iain Gray said: “It is no surprise that after the SNP winning a majority, many Scots are thinking about our constitutional future. We saw a similar effect after the SNP first formed a government in 2007.

“The SNP are going to hold a referendum and the important thing is that they stop ducking and diving on what they mean by separation.

“The people of Scotland have a right to know what exactly the SNP are proposing.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: “This poll confirms that independence is closer than ever, with there now being a real danger that Scotland could split from the rest of the UK.”