By JOHN F. BURNS and ALAN COWELL
LONDON — Arguing that the centuries-old “ties that bind” Britain together were under threat from Scottish separatism, Prime Minister David Cameron traveled to Edinburgh on Thursday to meet with First Minister Alex Salmond in what was seen here as the first, sparring bout of a longer battle over an independence referendum.
Ian Macnicol/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A protester outside where talks were held Thursday in Edinburgh between Britain's prime minister and Scotland's first minister.
David Moir/Reuters
Prime Minister David Cameron walked with Scotland's Conservative Party leader, Ruth Davidson, in Edinburgh on Thursday.
But the meeting suggested just how drawn out the dispute could be, with the two leaders casting the results of the talks in starkly different terms.
Mr. Salmond said the talks had “moved on quite substantially,” and that the men had narrowed the areas of disagreement, the Associated Press reported. But Mr. Cameron said that “on the issue of independence, separating Scotland, leaving the United Kingdom, I am afraid there wasn’t much progress.”
The meeting came after months of maneuvering, with Mr. Salmond saying he had been unable to get Mr. Cameron to agree to talk. In the end, Mr. Cameron coupled the meeting with a speech in Edinburgh in which he reached out directly to the Scottish people, lacing his pragmatic arguments on the financial and military advantages of the union with emotional appeals.
“I am one hundred percent clear that I will fight with everything I have to keep our United Kingdom together,” Mr. Cameron said. “To me, this is not some issue of policy or strategy or calculation — it matters head, heart and soul. Our shared home is under threat and everyone who cares about it needs to speak out.”
The meeting scheduled with Mr. Salmond was the first since the Scottish leader, whose Scottish National Party triumphed in elections last year, took an initial formal step last month toward a referendum on Scotland’s fate. His government hopes to secure a mandate from Scotland’s five million people for its withdrawal from the United Kingdom within as little as five years.
But Mr. Cameron and other British leaders say they have the power to decide if there should be a referendum and how it should be conducted, and they dispute many of the terms Mr. Salmond is seeking for the ballot.
Mr. Salmond has suggested late 2014 as a time for a referendum — the 700th anniversary of a famed Scottish victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn — and wants people as young as 16 to be able to vote, two years younger than at present. He is also pressing for the referendum to pose two separate questions to establish whether voters want independence, greatly enhanced autonomy or neither of those.
But Mr. Cameron, who fears a vote for autonomy will pave the way to independence, is seeking a yes or no vote whether Scotland should break away. He also wants an earlier date for the ballot — an apparent effort to limit the ability of Mr. Salmond, a formidable campaigner, to win over skeptical Scots. Opinion polls in recent years have suggested that a minority of Scots favor independence, and many of them are fearful of financial upheaval if they break away.
Mr. Cameron spoke to those and other worries on Thursday, arguing that membership of the United Kingdom is “stronger, safer, richer and fairer.”
“We’re stronger, because together we count for more in the world, with a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, real clout in NATO and Europe and unique influence with allies all over the world,” Mr. Cameron said. “We’re safer, because in an increasingly dangerous world we have the fourth-largest defense budget on the planet, superb armed forces and anti-terrorist and security capabilities that stretch across the globe and are feared by our enemies and admired by our friends.
“We’re richer, because inside the United Kingdom, Scotland’s five million people are part of an economy of 60 million, the seventh-richest economy on the planet and one of the world’s biggest trading powers,” he said.
For his part, though, Mr. Salmond says Scotland will be better off with unfettered access to its own resources. Late Wednesday, he told an audience in London that, with exclusive access to North Sea oil, which is also claimed by Britain, Scotland would be able to build a sovereign energy fund worth more than $45 billion within 20 years.
“The debate about independence is about looking forward and creating a better future for Scotland,” he said.
Mr. Salmond also has said that the referendum is an issue for Scotland alone to orchestrate, rejecting assertions by British ministers that his government does not have the authority to do so.
A spokesman for him said the “key point” was that “the terms of the referendum must be decided in Scotland.”
Mr. Cameron also suggested Thursday that if Scots rejected independence, his government would consider granting Scotland more powers.
Mr. Salmond was dismissive of the notion, saying that if Mr. Cameron had an offer to make, he should spell it out now, according to an Associated Press report.
“This idea of saying ‘well, vote no and we’ll give you something later’ I don’t think is going to convince anyone in Scotland,” he said.
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