SCOTLAND’S ECONOMY will be damaged by the uncertainty that would follow should the independence referendum be lost, the Scottish National Party has said.
Scottish minister Bruce Crawford, who rejected charges that businesses face a two-year limbo ahead of a referendum in 2014, said a clearly developed independence plan will be put before voters.
British prime minister David Cameron is offering undefined extra self-government for Scotland, but the full details will only be published if voters say No to independence.
Despite weeks of talks, both sides are still far apart on the timing of the referendum and on whether voters should have the choice of opting for independence or greater self-government.
Under the SNP’s plan, Mr Crawford said, “independence exists at the end”, but “we don’t know what exists at the other end” if Mr Cameron succeeds in fending off the SNP’s ambitions.
“The status quo is finished,” he said, adding that the British government – which wants a straight Yes or No question on the union put to voters – “cannot artificially exclude other options”.
The Conservatives had argued in 1979, when Scots were faced with a referendum to establish an assembly in Edinburgh, that independence would frighten business away.
“They were wrong then and they are wrong now,” said Mr Crawford, adding that the pro-union camp “do not deserve to be taken seriously until they make their position clear”.
However, one local businessman, Chris Harris, speaking at a conference in Edinburgh organised by The Scotsmannewspaper, expressed fears about the impact of the referendum.
“The machinery of government is showing signs of paralysis. People do not want to take decisions that will be seen as either pro- or anti-independence,” he told Mr Crawford.
However, secretary of state for Scotland Michael Moore said the Westminster government did not want to stand in the way of Scottish voters “but nor will it stand on the sidelines”.
Mr Moore, criticising the SNP’s plans to hold the referendum in late 2014, said he found its attitude perplexing since he had “shown that it can be done in 500 days”.
“As well as being a legal referendum, it must also be fair and decisive. I want to see a single clear question,” the Northern Ireland-born Liberal Democrat secretary of state said.
Meanwhile, the Scottish Trades’ Union Congress has backed Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s determination to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the referendum.
The congress also said it would be “inappropriate” to rule out another question on the referendum ballot paper that would ask voters if they backed more powers for Holyrood, short of independence.
Mr Moore announced that Edinburgh will become the headquarters of the UK’s Green Investment Bank, which will be given £3 billion to help kick-start renewable energy investments.
The decision to establish the long-promised institution in Edinburgh will help to develop “a green finance cluster” in the city and “shows that only the UK can pick the best of all of talents”.
Mr Salmond, for once agreeing with Mr Moore, said the decision recognised Scotland’s “position at the vanguard of the renewables revolution”.
The first minister, who has strongly backed renewable energy despite anger in many parts of Scotland against wind farms, has welcomed a £1 billion investment in 10 farms in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway by green energy firm Burcote Wind.
If approved by planners, the Burcote scheme could supply 550,000 homes and create almost 500 construction jobs and 100 permanent ones.
