A selection of remarks and comments and pointers to articles about the Scottish Independence Referendum.
People living in Scotland are invited to vote in the referendum on independence from the United Kingdom on 18 September 2014. The referendum question is “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Whether you intend voting Yes or No to that question, your views, and those of others, have a place here. We invite comments and we also invite you to write about what you think by using our Submit your Story feature here.
***
Martin McAdam, Chief Executive Officer of wave energy company Aquamarine Power (a member of the CBI) said:-“Businesses do not vote, people vote. The CBI has registered with the Electoral Commission as a NO campaign backer without consultation with its members.
The CBI have long made it known that their stance was anti-independence. They have a range of ‘fact sheets’ on their website which make their position evident. For an organisation which has been issuing daily press releases on a breadth of other issues their press area is silent today.
Their move to become registered as a backer of one side of the referendum would allow them to spend £150,000 on campaigning from 30 May when the ‘regulated period’ opens until the date of the referendum, should they wish to do so. The CBI chair, Iain McMillan, appeared at a fairly rough session of a Holyrood committee a couple of weeks ago, when his opening remarks as a witness were too lengthy for Mike Mackenzie SNP MSP for Highlands and Islands who broke in to ask how long “this polemic” was going to continue. In addition, Chic Brodie SNP MSP for South Scotland, was scolded by the chairman of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee for ‘badgering’ Mr McMillan, although he actually went on to be even more adversarial with the witness afterwards.
When questioned during the same session by Lothians MSP Alison Johnstone about whose views he represented in a paper published at the end of March, Mr McMillan said:-“The view that we represent in the paper is the broad collective view of the CBI. We do not claim that it is identical to the view of every individual business and organisation that is a member of the CBI. It is a collective view that has been determined by the council of CBI Scotland, which, in the main, is elected by the members.”
During later questioning it became clear that one of the members of the CBI, Tony Banks of Balhousie Care home group, a business based in Perth, had already expressed his view that the body had not consulted him on his views on independence and he did not know any members who had been asked. Mr Banks is one of the founders of Business for Scotland which supports independence.
The Edinburgh Reporter rounds up the variety of views we find across all media as often as we can.
This may be a daily article if there is a lot of chat about the independence referendum, or less frequently if we have too much else to do. If you would like to write about your views on independence then please feel free to submit your article using the Submit your Story feature here. The Edinburgh Reporter does not have a stance on the independence question, but hopes to help you make your mind up about the vote on 18 September 2014 by providing as much unbiased coverage as possible.
There are two main websites where you can obtain further information:-
Yes Scotland can be found here
Better Together has a website here
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
