Scottish Party launches its independence campaign

Scotland will launch the “yes” campaign in Edinburgh today as they try to gain independence from the UK.

The group is calling on the public to support their campaign with the message: put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is leading the campaign and has strong support from the Green Party and  independent parties along with celebrities and businesses.

The organisers have until October 2014 to convince the public to their ways before the voting takes place for the independence referendum to end the 305-year-old union with England.

The campaign is being launched in a cinema complex in the Scottish capital with the likes of Alan Cumming, Brian Cox and Sir Sean Connery all playing the supporting role.

A Yes Scotland spokesman said: “We have a 550-seat venue full to capacity and we could have filled it again with the level of interest we received.

We will have 100 journalists from all corners of the world, from China to the United States, from Spain to Germany, reflecting the interest generated not only in Scotland but internationally.

We chose a cinema because it’s a place where real people go, in contrast to a conference centre or other traditional venues, and we wanted to send a signal that this is about people not politicians.

For us, this has to be the biggest community-based campaign in Scotland’s history.”

Alex Salmond, the First Minister and SNP leader will be one of the key figures at the launch with Former Labour MP Dennis Canavan also supporting the campaign.

The campaign, however, is off to a rocky start as a YouGov survey revealed that among 1,004 people only one in three wanted to leave the UK and over half of those polled would vote against the referendum.

The poll commissioned by the former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling found 33% of people agreed that Scotland should become independent while 57% opposed the proposal and 10% were undecided.

Mr Darling, who is opposing the campaign and wants Scotland to continue being part of the UK, said: “The Nationalists are entitled to their view but the majority of us simply aren’t buying the independence policy they’re selling.”

Rajeeb Gurung