Labour is trying to resist intense pressure over a controversial donation by the Tory supporter and oil trader Ian Taylor to the anti-independence Better Together campaign after Alex Salmond said it ought to be returned.
Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, insisted Taylor's £500,000 gift to the Better Together – the largest of a number of private donations it received - was an "appropriate donation" after the first minister added to calls for a rethink.
In an article co-written with Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Osborne said Scotland could become independent but questioned whether it made economic sense.
Attacking the SNP’s desire to keep sterling, they said: “If Scotland does vote Yes on September 18, 2014, they say they want to hand what would become a foreign government key decisions over the Scottish economy. This is one of the big contradictions in their whole economic approach.
“Campaigning to 'bring powers home' with one hand, while giving them away with the other. Calling for 'full fiscal freedom' with one breath, but calling for a 'full fiscal pact' with the next. It simply doesn't add up."
The deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party has attacked the SNP in his speech to conference.
Anas Sarwar accused First Minister Alex Salmond of being ready to "do anything and say anything" in his bid to gain independence next year.
The Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has backed the Better Together campaign's decision to accept £500,000 from oil trader Ian Taylor.
She said it was an "appropriate donation" despite concerns over the past activities of Mr Taylor's company, Vitol, in places like Iraq and Serbia.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called for the money to be returned.
Ms Lamont, who is at her party's spring conference, was asked about the donation during a BBC news webchat.
Nato has rejected Alex Salmond's claim that an independent Scotland would automatically become a member of the military alliance, saying it would have to be treated as a new applicant.
Nato said it was widely agreed under international law that Scotland would be seen as a new state that would have to win the unanimous agreement of all 28 member states – including the UK – to join the alliance.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called on the Better Together campaign to return the £500,000 donation it received from businessman Ian Taylor.
Mr Taylor, chief executive of the oil trading firm Vitol, gave the money in a personal capacity to help secure a "no" vote in the independence referendum.
But Alex Salmond questioned the donation because of controversy over some of Vitol's past business dealings.
Better Together said it was a "valid donation" and would be retained.
Plans for an independent Scotland to keep sterling as its currency have been defended by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The Scottish government wants to retain the pound if the country votes for independence in next year's referendum.
Ms Sturgeon said it was "every bit as much Scotland's currency" as the rest of the UK's.
A UK Treasury spokesman said the simplest way to keep the pound was for Scotland to stay in the UK.
THE gloves are off in the Scottish independence debate after the Yes campaign accused their pro-Union rivals of launching a smear campaign.
The Scottish government's ambition to maintain influence over the Bank of England after independence has been scoffed at by a House of Lords committee as an "entirely fanciful" notion.
Peers including a former chancellor made the claims in a report on the economic implications of Scottish independence for the UK.
Scotland will vote in a referendum on independence on 18 September 2014.
The report takes a broad look at issues including currency, banking, financial regulation, assets and liabilities.
The campaign for a Yes vote in next year's Scottish independence referendum has received donations of more than £1.7m, it has revealed.
Yes Scotland said more than 7,000 small donors had contributed about £112,000 since campaigning began in May 2012.
A further £1,283,000 came from five individual donors and the SNP contributed £342,797.
Large donors included Ayrshire lottery winners Christine and Colin Weir, who each gave the campaign £500,000.
In a speech in Washington DC, Mr Salmond said Nato membership should be a "cornerstone" of Scottish defence.
Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, has said the SNP's commitment to remove nuclear weapons from an independent Scotland would cause concern in Washington.
BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell reports from the US capital.
First Minister Alex Salmond said he was "certain" that Nato countries would accept an independent Scotland opposed to nuclear weapons into the alliance.
Nato has said that if Scotland was considered to be a "new state" it would need to reapply for membership.
Mr Salmond said membership could be negotiated in the period between a "yes" vote in the referendum and Scotland actually becoming independent.
The SNP voted last year to change its position on Nato.
Both the UK and Scottish governments have been told by a committee of peers to be "more open" about what happens after the independence vote.
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee criticised both for failing to spell out any possible consequences of the vote, whatever the outcome.
The Scottish government accused the committee of being "out of touch".
The UK government said it would publish a series of analysis papers in the run-up to the vote in September 2014.
A FLAGSHIP theatre production tackling the independence debate will tour village halls and community centres across Scotland in the immediate run-up to next year’s decision day, The Scotsman can reveal.
The National Theatre of Scotland is joining forces with the producers of the award-winning A Play, A Pie and A Pint series of shows for a “political variety show” expected to be performed just weeks before voters go the polls.
It will be directed by veteran Scottish theatre figure David MacLennan, artistic director of the lunchtime play series at Oran Mor, in Glasgow.
After ignoring an offer from Yes Scotland to agree a timetable for publishing donations, Better Together has released its biggest backers' names, including large sums from outside Scotland
“Any reading of this as the settled will of the Scottish people would be misplaced,” Chris Eynon, who heads TNS BRMB Scotland, said in an e-mailed statement. “The contest for hearts and minds on Scottish independence has not even begun.”
The results in the TNS-BMRB poll will come as a blow to Mr Salmond, who has struggled to consistently attract more than a third of the electorate to the pro-independence cause.
More than 1,000 voters were interviewed in the latest poll between 20 March and 2 April - the period immediately after Mr Salmond announced the referendum date.
IF the architects of the Yes campaign for Scottish independence were hoping that recent events would put rocket boosters under their cause, they will be disappointed by the latest TNS BMRB poll published in The Herald today.
UK Chancellor George Osborne believes the SNP "are tying themselves in knots" over plans to retain the pound in the event of a yes to independence.
He insisted that a currency union could only work as part of a political and economic union.
Scotland's SNP government wishes to maintain sterling in the event of a yes vote in next September's referendum.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said keeping the pound was the "common sense position supported by the facts".
Labour is trying to resist intense pressure over a controversial donation by the Tory supporter and oil trader Ian Taylor to the anti-independence Better Together campaign after Alex Salmond said it ought to be returned.
Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, insisted Taylor's £500,000 gift to the Better Together – the largest of a number of private donations it received - was an "appropriate donation" after the first minister added to calls for a rethink.
In an article co-written with Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Osborne said Scotland could become independent but questioned whether it made economic sense.
Attacking the SNP’s desire to keep sterling, they said: “If Scotland does vote Yes on September 18, 2014, they say they want to hand what would become a foreign government key decisions over the Scottish economy. This is one of the big contradictions in their whole economic approach.
“Campaigning to 'bring powers home' with one hand, while giving them away with the other. Calling for 'full fiscal freedom' with one breath, but calling for a 'full fiscal pact' with the next. It simply doesn't add up."
The deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party has attacked the SNP in his speech to conference.
Anas Sarwar accused First Minister Alex Salmond of being ready to "do anything and say anything" in his bid to gain independence next year.
POLITICAL and economic union is the price to pay for sticking with the pound, George Osborne argues in a major UK government attack on the SNP's plans for independence. In a joint article with Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, the Chancellor claims that pro-independence campaigners are "tying themselves in knots" by calling for independence within a monetary union with the UK.
The Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has backed the Better Together campaign's decision to accept £500,000 from oil trader Ian Taylor.
She said it was an "appropriate donation" despite concerns over the past activities of Mr Taylor's company, Vitol, in places like Iraq and Serbia.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called for the money to be returned.
Ms Lamont, who is at her party's spring conference, was asked about the donation during a BBC news webchat.
Nato has rejected Alex Salmond's claim that an independent Scotland would automatically become a member of the military alliance, saying it would have to be treated as a new applicant.
Nato said it was widely agreed under international law that Scotland would be seen as a new state that would have to win the unanimous agreement of all 28 member states – including the UK – to join the alliance.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called on the Better Together campaign to return the £500,000 donation it received from businessman Ian Taylor.
Mr Taylor, chief executive of the oil trading firm Vitol, gave the money in a personal capacity to help secure a "no" vote in the independence referendum.
But Alex Salmond questioned the donation because of controversy over some of Vitol's past business dealings.
Better Together said it was a "valid donation" and would be retained.
David Cameron has been warned by senior Tory peers that he has to answer questions about the impact of Scottish independence, including potential disruption in moving the UK's Trident nuclear weapons base from the Clyde.
Plans for an independent Scotland to keep sterling as its currency have been defended by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The Scottish government wants to retain the pound if the country votes for independence in next year's referendum.
Ms Sturgeon said it was "every bit as much Scotland's currency" as the rest of the UK's.
A UK Treasury spokesman said the simplest way to keep the pound was for Scotland to stay in the UK.
Many years ago, I requested a meeting with Margaret Thatcher to discuss a jobs crisis in Falkirk. To her credit, she agreed to my request.
During the course of the discussion, she told me that she understood my concern about unemployment in Falkirk, pronouncing the 'a' in Falkirk like the 'a' in Thatcher.
She was not happy when I corrected her but her megalomania was such that she probably thought she had the power to change everything, including the pronunciation of Scottish place names. She certainly changed the face of Scotland and her legacy lives on.
I do not believe in dancing on anyone's grave and I shall not be attending any street parties to celebrate the demise of Baroness Thatcher. However, I have been struggling all week to find something positive to say about the Thatcher legacy in Scotland.
So here it is: She helped to bring about the creation of the Scottish Parliament and reinforce the case for Scottish independence.
Why do I believe that when I also believe that she treated the people of Scotland with absolute contempt? Well, sometimes absolute contempt can have unintended consequences.
For Thatcher, Scotland was simply part of her United Kingdom and, as soon as she became Prime Minister, she proceeded to foist upon the people of Scotland policies which were perceived by many Scots as the diktats of an alien government.
Her Secretary of State for Scotland was like a governor-general with no electoral mandate from the people he governed. The Tories ruthlessly used their majority in the House of Commons to force through Scottish legislation on matters such as housing, health, education and local government, despite the fact that the majority of Scots and the majority of their elected representatives were opposed to such legislation.
The most obvious case was the poll tax, surely the most iniquitous tax ever invented. Margaret Thatcher was dubbed Robin Hood in reverse, robbing the poor to give to the rich.
The overwhelming majority of Scots opposed the poll tax and, to add insult to injury, the people of Scotland felt they were being used as guinea pigs when Thatcher introduced the poll tax in Scotland a year before it was introduced in England and Wales.
All of this imposition of policies on the people of Scotland against the wishes of the people of Scotland helped to expose what became known in Scotland as a democratic deficit.
Even many people who had voted 'No' in the 1979 Scottish Referendum became belatedly aware that that the only way to address that democratic deficit was to establish a Scottish Parliament.
Our Scottish Parliament has now been in existence for nearly 14 years and it is nearly 23 years since Margaret Thatcher was ousted from 10 Downing Street. But her legacy is still with us.
We now have another Tory-led Government attacking the poorest and most vulnerable people by imposing savage welfare cuts, including another iniquitous tax called the bedroom tax.
An increasing number of Scots are now beginning to realise that, if Scotland were an independent country, there is no way that such an evil tax would be imposed on the people of Scotland.
An increasing number of Scots are also beginning to realise that, in an independent Scotland, the Scottish Parliament would have full powers over benefits and taxation and would therefore be empowered to create a fairer Scotland.
Scotland's democratic deficit was only partially addressed when the people of Scotland voted "Yes" in the 1998 Referendum. It can be fully addressed by voting "Yes" in the 2014 Referendum.
Dennis Canavan, former parliamentarian at Westminster and Holyrood, is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Yes Scotland, the campaign for independence
Contextual targeting label:
THE gloves are off in the Scottish independence debate after the Yes campaign accused their pro-Union rivals of launching a smear campaign.
The pro-independence campaign by Yes Scotland has been heavily funded by the UK's largest Euromillions jackpot winners, Chris and Colin Weir, who have given the group £1m towards its first seven months of operation. And they may continue to do so: the Weirs, who collected a record £161m jackpot in July 2011, have told Yes Scotland they will donate again if needed.
The Scottish government's ambition to maintain influence over the Bank of England after independence has been scoffed at by a House of Lords committee as an "entirely fanciful" notion.
Peers including a former chancellor made the claims in a report on the economic implications of Scottish independence for the UK.
Scotland will vote in a referendum on independence on 18 September 2014.
The report takes a broad look at issues including currency, banking, financial regulation, assets and liabilities.
The campaign for a Yes vote in next year's Scottish independence referendum has received donations of more than £1.7m, it has revealed.
Yes Scotland said more than 7,000 small donors had contributed about £112,000 since campaigning began in May 2012.
A further £1,283,000 came from five individual donors and the SNP contributed £342,797.
Large donors included Ayrshire lottery winners Christine and Colin Weir, who each gave the campaign £500,000.
In a speech in Washington DC, Mr Salmond said Nato membership should be a "cornerstone" of Scottish defence.
Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, has said the SNP's commitment to remove nuclear weapons from an independent Scotland would cause concern in Washington.
BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell reports from the US capital.
First Minister Alex Salmond said he was "certain" that Nato countries would accept an independent Scotland opposed to nuclear weapons into the alliance.
Nato has said that if Scotland was considered to be a "new state" it would need to reapply for membership.
Mr Salmond said membership could be negotiated in the period between a "yes" vote in the referendum and Scotland actually becoming independent.
The SNP voted last year to change its position on Nato.
Both the UK and Scottish governments have been told by a committee of peers to be "more open" about what happens after the independence vote.
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee criticised both for failing to spell out any possible consequences of the vote, whatever the outcome.
The Scottish government accused the committee of being "out of touch".
The UK government said it would publish a series of analysis papers in the run-up to the vote in September 2014.
First Minister Alex Salmond has told an American audience that Scottish independence would not harm the country's international partnerships. He was speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, during a visit to the United States. Mr Salmond forecast that an independent Scotland would become an active member of organisations such as Nato.
A FLAGSHIP theatre production tackling the independence debate will tour village halls and community centres across Scotland in the immediate run-up to next year’s decision day, The Scotsman can reveal.
The National Theatre of Scotland is joining forces with the producers of the award-winning A Play, A Pie and A Pint series of shows for a “political variety show” expected to be performed just weeks before voters go the polls.
It will be directed by veteran Scottish theatre figure David MacLennan, artistic director of the lunchtime play series at Oran Mor, in Glasgow.
After ignoring an offer from Yes Scotland to agree a timetable for publishing donations, Better Together has released its biggest backers' names, including large sums from outside Scotland
“Any reading of this as the settled will of the Scottish people would be misplaced,” Chris Eynon, who heads TNS BRMB Scotland, said in an e-mailed statement. “The contest for hearts and minds on Scottish independence has not even begun.”
The results in the TNS-BMRB poll will come as a blow to Mr Salmond, who has struggled to consistently attract more than a third of the electorate to the pro-independence cause.
More than 1,000 voters were interviewed in the latest poll between 20 March and 2 April - the period immediately after Mr Salmond announced the referendum date.
IF the architects of the Yes campaign for Scottish independence were hoping that recent events would put rocket boosters under their cause, they will be disappointed by the latest TNS BMRB poll published in The Herald today.
The defence industry provides more than 15,000 jobs and contributes between £1.8 billion and £2billion annually to the Scots economy. But the Commons Scottish Affairs Committee said it could find no defence supplier or product which would benefit from a split with the UK, but found a large number that would suffer.
A cross-party committee of MPs has warned ministers that resentment amongst English voters will worsen unless they set up a convention to look at expanding devolution across the UK. The political and constitutional reform select committee said a constitutional convention was also needed to develop a comprehensive, UK-wide strategy on devolution after the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014.
Opponents of Scottish independence have raised more than £1.1m in their bid to keep the United Kingdom intact, new figures have revealed. The campaign group Better Together, which is being fronted by the former Chancellor Alistair Darling, disclosed this weekend that it had nearly doubled its fighting fund after receiving a £500,000 donation from the oil tycoon Ian Taylor.