This petition is becoming increasingly important now that the three main parties and Better Together have revised their 'announcement'. Can you help to spread the word? The 'No' team continue to pretend they are still just clarifying a 'timetable' for previously announced extra powers for Scotland, while Gordon Brown promises he is going to dangle twelve exciting, brand new devolved bribes before the electorate. They are changing the playing field right before the final vote in a two year campaign and after the 'score' has already begun to be counted. (The postal ballots having been cast.) They don't just want to have their cake and eat it too - they are getting away with it as I write. But DIDN'T they promise these new powers already? Absolutely not. No agreement on anything other than talks that might or could or 'definitely would' lead to greater devolution had been reached prior to last week's poll. The one that put 'Yes' ahead of 'No' for the first time: 1. The 'talks'. In the first week of August of 2014 a cross-party pledge – first endorsed by Scottish leaders of the pro-UK parties in June - offered extra tax and legal powers for Scotland after a 'no' vote. Talks about what these might be were to begin after the vote in September. What would these talks consist of, what new powers would be on the table? On August 25th Alistair Darling debated Alex Salmond live on television. Darling was asked what new job creating powers (fiscal powers) Scotland would be given. His reply: A jobs programme; A guarantee to get unemployed people back into work. As the first Minister pointed out, these were not new powers. Darling could not or would not offer anything more specific because nothing more specific existed to be offered. And this was because as late as August 18th, 2014 David Cameron still resisted the idea of any new powers for Scotland, despite the cross party pledge: "Westminster’s lack of commitment to any new powers for Scotland has been highlighted again today – after it emerged that the power to set Corporation Tax could be devolved to Northern Ireland in the event of a No vote but not to Scotland." http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2014/aug/more-powers-scotland-not-westminster-radar In fact, the party leaders themselves could not agree what these might be, or if they should be offered. All they could agree on was the promise of talks - that is to say, negotiations after the vote. 2. An entirely new offer So if they want to make any announcement, then they are within their rights to say, for example, what those talks would cover, when they would take place and what the different positions of the various parties are liable to be. What they cannot do is claim that a detailed plan for devolved powers, (drafted by Gordon Brown independently of the cross party campaign), is exactly the same as the promise of negotiations about extra powers after the vote. They cannot and must not make specific promises of powers, rather than talks. And yet they plan to do exactly this: "Brown’s plan to hold the Union together, including 12 new devolved powers, was unveiled as a new poll put Yes and No neck and neck." http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/referendum-gordon-brown-offers-scots-4187196 Let me just reiterate: To make an offer to one section of the Scottish electorate that was not available to another, (by making it after the polling has begun and votes have been cast), disenfranchises those who have voted already. It changes the whole playing field and it breaks both the spirit and the letter of the law and worse … What makes this so vitally important is that these illegal, bewildering bribes might well muddy the waters for those still making up their minds. Worst of all is that the parcel of rogues who have thrown out the rulebook in their panic, will not tell voters that Scotland's devolved powers are already as solid as highland mist: A Scottish MP has reacted with fury after the Scottish Parliament was stripped of a key energy power after a House of Lords amendment was backed by Unionist MPs. SNP Energy spokesman Mike Weir MP slammed the vote, which saw powers over renewable obligation brought back under the control of Westminster. Commenting on the debate in the House of Commons on the Lords amendment to the Energy bill - and in particular Amendment 54 which removed the Scottish parliament's powers in respect of renewables obligation in Scotland - Mr Weir said: "This is an outrageous example of the unionist parties ganging up to remove powers from the Scottish parliament.  Worse still they did so by introducing last-minute amendments in the unelected House of Lords, rather than having the courage to debate it on the floor of the House of Commons." http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-politics/8428-fury-after-unelected-peers-strip-power-from-scotland The reason this key power was revoked by the House of Lords? To allow the government to proceed with licenses for fracking in Scotland! So much for the best of both worlds. That is what makes this petition so important. We need to TRY to stop the pro-union party leaders and the Bitter Together campaign from violating the law, spirit and intent underlying this referendum purely so that they can try to seduce the remaining voters with a glittery, newly created bribe which means nothing when the establishment decides it is time, for example, to frack our land. http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-politics/8428-fury-after-unelected-peers-strip-power-from-scotland