Former UK Prime Minister Brown Prefers UKIP/Tory Government to Scottish Independence

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The former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told RIA Novosti not even the threat of a right-wing Ukip/Conservative Government being elected at the next British General Election in 2015 would persuade him to support Scottish independence.

GALASHIELS, SCOTLAND, September 14 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst - The former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told RIA Novosti not even the threat of a right-wing Ukip/Conservative Government being elected at the next British General Election in 2015 would persuade him to support Scottish independence.

"[The decision] cannot just be about hating one policy or disliking a particular Government as you suggest. It cannot just be about what you feel about the issue of the moment. You have got to take the long view. You have got to look ahead," Brown told RIA Novosti, answering a question if there were any circumstances, such as a widely speculated Conservative/Ukip coalition Government being formed, that would convince him to back a Yes vote.

"I think people will conclude from experience that we are an interdependent world and that sharing, co-operation, solidarity, neighborliness is the way forward and it makes no sense to separate ourselves off from neighbors, friends and relatives in the rest of the United Kingdom," Brown added.

Recent opinion polling has shown around a third of Labour party voters plan to vote Yes in the independence referendum that takes place 18 September.

RIA Novosti asked Brown whether the Labour Party's credibility had been damaged by campaigning so closely alongside the Conservatives, who have only one elected MP in the whole of Scotland.

"The reason that votes have been moving from one side to the other, and you have uncertain opinion polls, and the reason things are in flux is simply this; people want change. People are looking at their options for change," Brown told RIA Novosti.

According to Brown, the one thing that people have made up their mind on is that they want to express their strong sense of Scottish identity and desire for change. "What has happened in the last few days, and you have seen all these polls going all over the place, is that people are saying yes we want change," he explained, adding that in the remaining days before the referendum people need to decide what kind of change it will be.

The long-standing issue of the Scottish independence is to be settled by a referendum scheduled for September 18, when voters will be invited to answer a yes/no question that reads: "Should Scotland become an independent country?"

If the majority of Scots vote for independence, then on March 24, 2016 Scotland will secede from the United Kingdom.

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