Tom Griffin (London, The Green Ribbon):November 30, 2010 is the day to mark in your diary, according to the Sunday Times. Kenneth Gibson, the MSP for Cunninghame North has apparently let slip details of the SNP's heavily symbolic timetable for Scottish independence.
The plan calls for a referendum bill to be introduced on 25 January, Burns Day, ahead of a vote in November on St Andrews Day.
That will only happen, of course, if the SNP minority government can get a majority for the bill. The outcome of the current Labour and Liberal Democrat leadership debates may tell us a lot about how likely that is.
Scottish Labour’s former leader Wendy Alexander committed the party to supporting a referendum, but at least one of the frontrunners to replace her, Iain Gray, is against the idea.
Last week, The Sunday Times revealed that two of the three candidates to be leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats were open-minded about putting the question to voters.
For now, the leadership debates have been over-shadowed by this Thursday's Glasgow East by-election. A poll for the Scottish Daily Mail suggests that Labour goes into the final week of campaigning with a 17 per cent lead. That would seem to be evidence in favour of those who have always believed Labour's strength in the constituency would see it through, but the Sunday Herald presents a very different picture.
The SNP's private polling still shows Labour's Margaret Curran marginally ahead on 26%, with the SNP candidate, John Mason, four points behind. Labour's internal polling has also told them that the result on Thursday will be "tight as hell". However, the numbers of the undecided will worry Downing Street and the Labour Party in Scotland more than it will worry Salmond.
