"Scots’ vote on independence from Britain sought for 2014" January 11, 2012|By Robert Hutton
LONDON - Alex Salmond, Scotland’s nationalist first minister, said yesterday that he aims to call a referendum on independence from Britain in the fall of 2014, a year that will see the 700th anniversary of the Scots’ defeat of the English at the Battle of Bannockburn....
The clash between Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and Salmond, who has dominated Scottish politics for 20 years, threatens to overshadow British politics until the vote takes place.
The union between England and Scotland in 1707 created the country that dominated the world for more than a century, with Scotland providing many soldiers, industrialists, politicians, and thinkers who helped build the British Empire. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is Scottish, and Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh.
An Ipsos-Mori poll last month found almost two-thirds of Scots want the referendum called before 2014 and that 38 percent support independence, against 57 percent who oppose it....
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