lundi 30 mars 2015

Salmond Pt 3: Devo Max, The Vow (and the black black oil..?)


Alex Salmond relates the tussle with the Unionist parties over the question of a “Devo Max” option on the referendum ballot paper, in this final 30-minute part of Newsnet.scot’s series of videos recorded in Edinburgh.

The former First Minister told his audience that Prime Minister David Cameron had refused to back the Devo Max question being added because he had been advised that the independence referendum was an opportunity to destroy the SNP.

Salmond said Cameron had been told that a straight Yes: No vote would result in an overwhelming victory for the Union, with just 28 per cent of people likely to back independence.

He believes today that Labour’s big mistake was to take a similar view, refuse to take up the Devo Max option, and throw in their lot with the Tories and Lib Dems within the Better Together campaign.

The response came in a free-ranging question-and-answer session before a 250 strong audience and chaired by Newsnet’s Derek Bateman.

Questions included the impact of social media on modern political campaigning, opinion polls, Gordon Brown, ‘The Vow’ and Salmond's successor as party leader and First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
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