Scottish opposition leaders are to press the first minister to change his ballot question for Scotland’s independence referendum to a ‘fairer’ form of words.
They want Alex Salmond to use the question suggested today by a panel of constitutional academics appointed by Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The three-strong panel suggested the wording for the autumn 2014 referendum should be: ‘Scotland should become an independent state,’ followed by the two options of ‘I agree’ or ‘I do not agree’.
This, they claim, would be less leading than the Scottish Government’s proposed question: ‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’. They want the independent Electoral Commission, which will oversee the poll, to consider adopting the alternative wording.
But the commission has said it will discuss only proposals put forward by the Scottish Government. The Opposition will now press the case for the panel’s wording when they next meet Salmond for party leaders’ talks. Scottish Labour Leader Johann Lamont said that the panel’s question was designed to ensure that neither side gained unfair advantage: ‘I hope that we reach agreement with the first minister on this at the next meeting of the party leaders and move on to the real debate about our country’s future,’ she added.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson called the panel’s wording ‘clear, fair and decisive’, while the LibDems’ Willie Rennie said: ‘This panel is the only independent expert panel that has been established to draft the question for the referendum.’
The panel consisted of former Edinburgh University principal Lord Stewart Sutherland, Canadian constitutionalist Ron Gould and referendum-expert Dr Matt Qvortrup from Cranfield University in Bedfordshire.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Trades Union Congress has voiced concern that inter-party bickering is stifling proper debate about constitutional change.
The warning came from general secretary Grahame Smith, as the STUC prepared to embark on a month-long series of consultative conferences across Scotland to gather views on what constitutional reform could achieve.
Smith said: ‘Through their jobs, many of our members have expertise across the economy and public service, and it is these skills, along with those of community partners, that we hope to put to work to improve the tenor of the debate over coming months.’
