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Dave Coull
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Referendum (Sunday Post)Campbell Gunn writes a full-page "Political Round-up" in the Sunday Post. On March the 8th, his headline was "Referendum isn't dead and buried". He says | Quote: | Remember Wendy Alexander's famous "Bring it on!" challenge?
Indeed, last May, following a Labour group meeting, MSP Duncan McNeil stated "We are now in a position where, as a group, we will not vote down any Referendum Bill that comes into the Parliament".
That, of course, was then. By the time next year comes around, the Nationalists argue, who's to say where the Opposition parties will be on the issue?
A senior party aide pointed out that a recent poll showed A THIRD of all Liberal Democrat constituency chairmen were in favour of a referendum.
It's also climed that, privately, at least FIVE Conservative MSPs are in favour of putting the vote on independence to the country.
After the bill is published - in January - and it will definitely be published - there will be a three-month consultation process which will in all probability concide with the Westminster general election campaign.
That will ensure the Referendum Bill becomes a major talking point, even before it's debated at Holyrood.
The Government's aim will be to see the Bill through its three parliamentary stages, to be followed by a referendum later in the year, most probably during the week of Saint Andrew's Day. |
Of course, an awful lot could happen between now and then. If a week is a long time in politics, a year and a half is an eternity. But the refusal of the Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Conservative parties to allow THEIR OWN MSPs a free vote will increasingly raise the question, what are they so scared of?
Speaking of a free vote, in another section of his "Political Round-up" page in the Sunday Post, Campbell Gunn gave a good reason for Liberal Democrat MSP for the Highlands, John Farquhar Munro, being out of the country when his colleague Mike Rumbles' "no referendum bill" motion was voted on in the the Scottish Parliament.
| Quote: | | "He's in Europe for health reasons", one senior Lib Dem MSP told me. "If he'd been here, and voted against us, I would have killed him." |
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agentmancuso
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Re: Referendum (Sunday Post) | Dave Coull wrote: |
| Quote: | | "He's in Europe for health reasons", one senior Lib Dem MSP told me. "If he'd been here, and voted against us, I would have killed him." |
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