ANALYSIS:ROBERT BURNS, the bard of Scotland, was much quoted yesterday in Edinburgh, both to support and decry Alex Salmond's bid to secure his lifelong ambition for Scottish independence.
But it began with a word of caution from Stewart Gillan, a church minister from Linlithgow, to members of the Holyrood parliament. “Thou hast formed me with passions wild and strong; And list’ning to their witching voice Has often led me wrong,” she quoted the bard, appropriately on Burns’s Day.
Salmond preferred to stick with Burns's egalitarianism, best expressed in A Man's A Man for A' That– a poem put to music for the reopening of the Scottish parliament after nearly 300 years in 1999.
Having detailed his plans for a 2014 referendum with a straight question to Scots on whether they want to stay in the union or not, Salmond moved to Edinburgh Castle – the centre of military power in Scotland for a thousand years.
The location was carefully chosen, sending out the subliminal message that Scotland was a proud, free land long before it entered the union – a move it made when Scottish fortunes nosedived after a “get-rich-quick” investment in Panama went disastrously wrong.
For now, Salmond is the principal figure in Scottish politics, but just one-third of voters instinctively back independence. The rest must be wooed over the next 2½ years. Ever the master tactician, he has already rowed back on his declaration that Westminster has no role to play in influencing the road ahead, but he refuses to accept it will be the decisive voice.
Preferring one question, he insisted he would listen to arguments from those in Scottish “civic society” who want an option of greater self-government.
Some believe this is Salmond’s real ambition but that he cannot say so out loud because so many in his own ranks – some of whom have battled for decades for independence – believe that putting such a question on the ballot paper would ensure the independence vote would be lost.
Helped by English politicians and media that cannot help but appear to sneer over Scotland’s ambitions, Salmond, ideally, would keep open the option of a two-question referendum for as long as possible, so he might judge the scale of voters’ appetites for a break from London.
His opponents in the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem parties – if for different reasons – want to ensure he is forced to accept a Yes/No question on independence, believing that this is the best way of puncturing his current popularity with Scots.
