Scottish independence: Campaigns gearing up for launch

The Acts of Union were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed in 1706 and 1707 by,
respectively, the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland, to make
effective the Treaty of Union which had been negotiated between the two countries.
The Acts joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which had
been separate states before, but with the same monarch, into a single Kingdom of
Great Britain.

The two countries had shared a monarch for about 100 years (since the Union of the
Crowns in 1603, when James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne from his
cousin, Queen Elizabeth I).

Campaigns urging voters to back either Scottish independence or the United

Kingdom are set to be launched within weeks.

A Yes Scotland independence website will go live on Friday with the support of
"leading stars, community and political figures". Meanwhile, the Labour Party’s
Alistair Darling said a pro-Union campaign will launch in the next few weeks.

The Scottish government wants to hold a vote on independence in autumn 2014.

Organisers of Yes Scotland said they want "Scots from all walks of life" to sign a Yes
Declaration in Edinburgh on Friday.

The campaign aims to set out "why being independent offers the best future for
people across Scotland". A spokesman said: "The launch will see the start of the
biggest community-based campaign in Scotland's history, designed to build a
groundswell of support for an independent Scotland ahead of the 2014
referendum."

Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Mr. Darling confirmed that he had been
involved in meetings with Conservatives and Liberal Democrats working towards a
Union launch in the coming weeks.

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He said: "I've had several such meetings; there will be a campaign to persuade
people we are better remaining within the UK. It will involve all political parties but
crucially it will also involve people of no political party, because this is something
that is going to be won by the people of Scotland not politicians fighting with each
other."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for the Scottish National Party
to work with all political parties to devise a fair question. He said: "It's in the interest
of whoever wins the referendum to have the acceptance of those who lose. A critical
part of that is a fair question accepted by everyone. Yet, the SNP seem to think only
they should determine the question that is asked."

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: "Alex Salmond can try and
to give the impression there is support for separation. But the facts are that the SNP
have lost a quarter of their support in just a year and got barely a third of the vote in
the council elections."

SNP campaigns director Angus Robertson said the Yes Scotland launch would take
the debate into "every community across our country. These are exciting times for
Scotland as we work to build a better nation," he added.

Answer the following questions:

• What is going to start in the U.K. very soon?

• Does everyone support it?
• Which political parties are in the text?
• When does the Yes Scotland campaign start?
• When does the Pro-union campaign start?
• When will the vote be?
• What kind of campaign will it be?
• What does Mr. Darling not want to happen in the campaign?
• What does Willie Rennie want to happen?
• Has the SNP been successful recently?

Look for words or phrases in the text that have similar meaning to these:
• preparing for _______________
• start ____________
• try hard to get someone to do something ____________
• to support _______________
• every kind of person ____________________
• to display, or show _____________
• an increase of something _______________
• very importantly _______________
• to invent, to come up with _______________
• to make something appear to be one way ______________________