Scottish referendum plan emerging

I mentioned here on Sunday the LA Times interview in which Alex Salmond appeared to give up on a second question in the Scottish Independence referendum. The talks between London and Edinburgh are still in progress and nothing is agreed until every single bit of the wording is agreed.

But another report surfaced today in the Daily Record on the agreement taking shape. It looks like London has won on what it sees as the critical issue at stake: one question, no second option question on devo max.

Some pro-independence supporters may say they never wanted the second question and their consultation was simply politely checking to see whether there was a groundswell of people demanding it. Well…  some senior SNP figures weren’t wedded to the idea of a second question and wanted a pure independence fight. But Alex Salmond and his senior strategists did want it. They thought it would give them a fantastic fall-back position if the independence proposition failed but enough people voted for a specially-crafted close “devo max” alternative to mean they secured a very significant stepping stone to independence.

Read more: Salmond strong hint of one question referendum

But the groundswell for “devo max” didn’t really materialise in a united widespread, powerful form. London made “one question” the single non-negotiable of the talks with Edinburgh and there will be no second question. London has the reserve powers over a referendum and needs to pass a bill approving the vote for it to be legal (Holyrood must also pass a bill) so its veto counted. Some time next month the two sides will announce their agreement in time for the bills in London and Scotland to get on the statute book in 2013.

London could, technically, refuse Holyrood’s wish to extend the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds in the referendum. But it would have to put a special clause in legislation banning the move. So the mood music would appear to be that the Scottish government will probably extend the franchise if it’s convinced that extending it will work.

In the Daily Record, Torchuil Crichton writes that it looks like London will agree to the wording that Alex Salmond wanted on the independence question, asking if voters “agree” with the independence proposal. There had been concern amongst pro-union campaigners that this was a leading formulation of language given that people are more inclined to agree than disagree with something. But it appears London is now quite relaxed about the wording, informed by a little polling perhaps, and Alex Salmond wins his way on that.

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