Pro-Union politicians have pencilled in June 22 as the date for the long-awaited launch of their campaign to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom, The Times has learnt.
Although a final decision will be made this week, the only other date that organisers are looking at is June 15 — two days after Alex Salmond, the First Minister, appears at the Leveson inquiry into press ethics, where he is expected to be questioned about his relationship with Rupert Murdoch and News International, parent company of The Times.
However, June 22 appears more likely, according to sources, and the disclosure that the pro-Union side is now on the point of launching its campaign means that the battle for Scotland’s future — to be decided in a referendum planned for autumn 2014 — will soon be underway.
However, The Times has learnt that the pro-Union launch will eschew what one source described as the “showbusiness-style” of the pro-independence Yes campaign, which got off the ground on May 25.
A senior figure said: “Ours will be much more of what you might call a soft launch, with any razzmatazz coming a bit down the road and concentrating for now on the substance. After all, we have over 800 days to go until autumn 2014.”
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One problem that the cross-party pro-Union side — to be fronted by Alistair Darling, the former Labour Chancellor, Charles Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, and Annabel Goldie, the former Scottish Tory leader — will have is what name to give their campaign.
Already the decision has been made not to combine under a “No to independence” banner because of fears that it will be seen as entirely negative.
Sources said that slogans such as “Better United” and “Stronger Together” were more likely. It will also be presented as a Yes to the United Kingdom campaign, meaning that Scots when they come to vote on their constitutional future may have to choose essentially between two Yes campaigns.
Pro-Union organisers are confident that they will get sufficient funding to match the £2 million-plus the Nationalist side has in its coffers. Sources said that they already had substantial interest in the campaign from business and other potential donors.
Most of the cash will have to be spent before the official campaign takes place to abide by spending rules.
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The Times can also reveal that the leaders of the three Opposition parties at Holyrood will announce in the next ten days that they are to put forward their own preferred referendum question. Already Mr Salmond has disclosed the referendum question he wants: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?”
After criticism that this question was biased and loaded, Mr Salmond said that he was happy for the Electoral Commission to test it and make comments. Now his opponents in Scotland are to put forward their own question which, unlike Mr Salmond’s, is certain to make mention of Scotland’s present position as part of the UK. They will also invite the Commission to test it.
The pro-Union side believe that there has been a major change in the political weather in recent weeks around the issue of independence, with the Nationalists now on the back foot.
Mr Salmond and the SNP were left deeply disappointed by their failure to win control of Glasgow in the Scottish council elections on May 3.
That turned out to be the overture to a difficult political month for Mr Salmond. He drew back from changing the SNP’s anti-Nato policy after internal party criticism, and also faced attacks on the lack of detail around the SNP’s plan to adopt sterling as the currency of an independent Scotland.
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The badly received launch of the Yes campaign did not help matters and some pro-SNP business figures such as Sir Tom Farmer, the founder of Kwik-Fit, have indicated that they would be happier with enhanced devolution for Scotland than outright independence.