Don't disrespect the Scottish Parliament and its elections

With almost 45% voting Yes to independence in the Scottish Independence Referendum last year and 50% voting for the SNP in the General Election last month, you'd think David Cameron would have learned a vital lesson by now.

That is: the people of Scotland feel deeply about the Scottish Parliament and its elections.

For David Cameron to even suggest that the in/out EU referendum could be held on the same day as the Scottish General Election shows just how little regard he has for Scotland. Worse, our election day is also the day of elections to the Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments. It shows he thinks the devolved parliaments of the United Kingdom are not important enough to have not just a separate election day but also a separate campaign window.

In the month prior to the EU ref, the compliant media, particularly the BBC, would bombard the country with EU debates; the Scottish General Election would get second billing, or no billing at all. The Welsh and Northern Ireland elections would be similarly relegated.

Although David Cameron has now been defeated on the holding of the EU ref on the same day as the devolved elections, it still remains to be seen if he'll also avoid the campaign window for those elections. We don't want the EU ref to be held on the Tue only for the devolved elections to be held on the Thu two days later.

Such a scenario would be just as bad as holding them on the same day. We need a guarantee that the EU referendum will be sufficiently far removed in time from the devolved elections so that there is no danger of campaign window overlap. That means they must be held at least one month apart.

However, although two campaigns so close together is doable, it is not preferable. Far better to have them a few months apart. Given the devolved elections are taking place in May, then a good starting point for the EU ref would be September. And given the Scottish Independence Referendum took place on the third Thu of Sep (18th Sep 2014, to be precise), with a huge turnout, then there is no obvious reason why the EU ref could not be held on the third Thu of Sep in 2016, namely the 17th of Sep 2016.

Scotland values its parliament and its elections; to treat them as second-class to the UK parliament's wishes is similar to turning up to someone's birthday party and announcing that you're thinking of getting divorced, then calling everyone at the party to ignore the host and come and listen to their divorce proceedings.

Well David Cameron, the Scottish elections are our birthday party and we don't need your possible EU divorce ruining it for us. By so openly disrespecting us, all you've done is weaken the grip of the Union further.