Academics back Devine’s call for independence

LEADING ACADEMICS have backed Professor Sir Tom Devine’s call for a “yes” vote in the upcoming Scottish referendum.

Professor Devine, a Catholic historian, told The Tablet this week he had changed his mind partly because of the “the patronising attitude of Westminster politicians”.

“It seems to me now that the clear choice is between independence and dependency.”

Dauvit Broun, professor of Scottish history at the University of Glasgow and a member of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association, said the campaign had changed the nature of ­politics.

Adding that he would vote “yes” to independence on 18 September because the Better Together campaign failed to convince him that United Kingdom society was ­better, Professor Broun said: “The campaign has made me realise that the UK exists only for expediency. It has dawned on me that I’ll not only be voting for Scottish independence, but for a new Britain born of the awareness of what the UK has become.”

Raymond MacDonald, a musician and professor of music psychology and improvisation at the University of Edinburgh and a Catholic, said that the cultural community was broadly supportive of a “yes” vote, adding that the referendum had reinvigorated a “moribund” political landscape in Scotland and would have profound implications for the arts.

Catholics are the most pro-independence Christian group in Scotland, according to the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey. In 2013, 37 per cent of Catholics polled said Scotland should be an independent country, compared to 22 per cent of members of the Church of Scotland and 13 per cent of “other” Christians. Forty-one per cent would vote“no”.