EDINBURGH, 16 August (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, has warned that Scottish independence would be “cheered” by the enemies of the West in the most outspoken foreign attack in the campaign so far.
“As a friend of Britain, as an observer from afar, it's hard to see how the world would be helped by an independent Scotland,” Abbott said in an exclusive interview for The Times, London.
“I think that the people who would like to see the break-up of the United Kingdom are not the friends of justice, not the friends of freedom, and that the countries that would cheer at the prospect of the break-up with the United Kingdom are not the countries whose company one would like to keep,” Abbott added.
“Independence seems to be working well for Australia,” responded Gail Lythgoe, a spokeswoman for the official pro-independence campaign, Yes Scotland. “The decision about Scotland's future is one for the people of Scotland to make - a point that even UK Prime Minister David Cameron asserts,” Lythgoe said.
“After a Yes vote, Scotland will take her place as a normal and valued member of the international community - just as Australia did when she gained independence at the turn of the century.”
Abbott, who spent two years at Oxford University, is no stranger to controversy and has previously insulted native Australian aborigines, housewives and immigrants despite the fact he moved to the country himself as a child.
Abbott’s comments on Scottish independence follow those by US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who both gave veiled support for the continuation of the United Kingdom as a whole following approaches from Downing Street. But the Australian Prime Minister’s comments represent the most explicit rejection of Scottish independence yet made by an international leader.
Scots will go to the polls on September 18, and will be asked one question, “Should Scotland become an independent country?”
