Referendum in 2014
First minister Salmond announces that he wants to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. The timeframe for the vote is designed to allow all the necessary legislation required to authorise it to be passed and for proper preparations to be made:
The date for the referendum has to be the autumn of 2014. That’s because this is the biggest decision that Scotland has made for 300 years. If you are going to do things properly and have the debate in the way it must be had then that is the date that we are going to move towards.
He says the referendum must be ‘made in Scotland’ and approved by the Scottish Parliament, and warns the UK government about ‘trying to pull the strings behind the scenes’.
What Scotland objects to is all the strings they (the UK government) are trying to to attach. They are trying to run a referendum by proxy.