Scottish independence: Salmond says Scotland is 'on cusp of making history'

By: Bajram Hysa                                                                                Facebook       Twitter        Google+


Alex Salmond described the referendum as a "process of national empowerment".
He also called for an inquiry into what he said was the leaking of sensitive market data by the Treasury involving RBS plans to move its headquarters to London if voters choose independence.
Five banks have said they might move operations out of Scotland, while John Lewis and Asda warned prices may rise.
RBS confirmed it would relocate its registered headquarters in the event of a "Yes" vote, insisting that the move would not impact jobs or operations.
Mr Salmond accused the UK government of deliberately leaking the news about RBS to the BBC and other news outlets before the bank made the announcement officially.
He said it was an attempt of scaremongering aimed at damaging the independence campaign and called for an investigation into civil servants leaking market sensitive information.
However, former prime minister Gordon Brown was among pro-unionists who questioned Mr Salmond's insistence that the warnings were just scaremongering.
"You can dismiss some of the warnings some of the time, but you can't dismiss all of the warnings all of the time," Mr Brown said.
The SNP leader, Mr Salmond, was speaking to the international media at an event in Edinburgh, which was taking place on the anniversary of the 1997 devolution referendum.
"They have now been caught red-handed of being part of a campaign of scaremongering," Mr Salmond said.
"I'm not making that position against any of the companies concerned but quite clearly if you brief market sensitive information last night to one broadcaster which is meant to be released at 07:00 BST this morning, it puts the Treasury fingerprints all over this story and it provides a spectacular example of the sort of campaign tactics of intimidation and bullying that have served the no campaign so badly."
Sir Jeremy Heywood, head of the civil service, rejected the suggestion. In a letter to the first minister, he said staff had merely "confirmed its understanding of RBS's contingency planning" judging this was important to "maintain financial stability".
He added that he had consulted Prime Minister David Cameron on the issue, who was clear that there had been no breach of the Ministerial Code.