ALEX SALMOND has defied the wishes of the UK Government and released a consultation paper on the Scottish Referendum.

The paper details the practicalities of a potential referendum and accuses the UK Government of believing “that legislation providing for a referendum on independence, even an advisory one, would be outside the existing powers of the Scottish Parliament.”

A draft of the ballot paper has also been revealed, with the proposed referendum question being, “Do you believe that Scotland should be an independent country?”

The paper, launched as part of a media event at Edinburgh Castle last Wednesday outlines the timetable for the referendum, provisionally to be held in 2014, and asserts the powers of the Scottish government to issue their own referendum.

It also discusses the possibility of having an extra question offering ‘devolution max’, the complete control of the Scottish government over Scottish taxation.

The question of Scottish independence was raised at the annual Hugo Young lecture in London last week, where the Scottish First Minister described enthusiasm for change amongst Scottish people and said that the election result which brought him to power was proof that Scotland wanted the referendum he promised in his Holyrood election campaign last year.

At the lecture, Salmond also dismissed the concerns of his political opponents that “Scotland would be weaker or more impoverished if it were independent”, saying they were just “scare stories”.

“On current figures, we would have the 6th highest per capita GDP in the OECD as an independent nation - the UK currently ranks 15th, and, incidentally, would still rank 15th without Scotland.”

Salmond also celebrated Scotland’s continued ability “to provide certain core universal services, rights or benefits, some of which are no longer prioritized by political leaders elsewhere- such as free university tuition, free prescriptions, free personal care for the elderly and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies across the public sector.

“We do this because we believe that such services benefit the common weal. They provide a sense of security, well-being and equity within communities.

“Such a sense of security is essential to a sense of confidence – and as we have seen over the last three years, confidence is essential to economic growth.”

Salmond went on to insist that there was not as much opposition to Scottish independence in England as was being suggested, saying, “the vast bulk of the people of England freely recognize Scotland’s right to determine its own future”.

He closed his speech by quoting Robert Burns, saying, “Ae fond kiss, and then we sever … it is a line from one of Burns’ great egalitarian poems that best sums up the likelihood of independence.”

The consultation paper can be found on the Scottish Parliament website and is open to responses and suggestions for the ballot paper and plans for the referendum. Over the weekend, a poll revealed that 51 per cent of the Scottish electorate would vote ‘yes’ if a referendum were to be held.