Will you be able to vote on Texas independence?

TYLER, TX (KLTV) -

Members of the Texas Nationalist Movement say, if they get enough petition signatures, Texans will be able to decide if our state should secede from the union. 

The group will be collecting signatures in Tyler on Saturday. 

"We want to give Texans the opportunity to experience the freedom and liberty that Americans once had," said Shawn Bradley, the Smith County coordinator for the Texas Nationalist Movement, a nonprofit association seeking Texas independence.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Texas can stand on it's own in this world and be a leader in the world," Bradley says. 

First, the group has to get around 100,000 signatures on a Texas independence petition. 

"It's going to put on the Republican primary ballot the question, 'should Texas consider becoming an independent nation?'"

Bradley says concerns about our country's direction fuel his group's desire to secede from the union. 

"We all have common concerns about the embracing of socialism, the degradation of our economy through massive debt and inflationary monetary policies."

He understands not everyone agrees, but he sites the Texas Constitution as the reason Texans should have the choice. 

"All political power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority. This is why we're going to the people because that is the source of all political power in our society," Bradley says. 

He hopes people on both sides can agree on the right to vote on Texas independence. 

We contacted our local representatives, State Senator Kevin Eltife and Congressman Louie Gohmert, among others, about the Texas independence movement. However, none of them wanted to comment on this issue. 

Bradley responded to their silence by saying, "I think that will change when I think there is enough evidence of popular support for the idea. When the people make it known they want this, then the politicians will follow suit." 

The group's petition signing will be Saturday from 9am-3pm at the corner of Loop 323 and Highway 155 in Tyler. 

To learn more about the Texas Nationalist Movement, click here. 

Copyright 2013 KLTV. All rights reserved.

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In Scotland's borderland, enthusiasm for independence elusive

1 of 22. Scottish and English flags flutter in the wind and rain at the border between England and Scotland at Carter Bar September 6, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville

By Hannah Vinter

COLDSTREAM | Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:43am EDT

COLDSTREAM (Reuters) - The old battlefields where Englishmen and Scotsmen once shed each other's blood are a reminder of historic enmities in the border region.

But with a year to go before Scotland votes on independence, enthusiasm for a break between the two countries is hard to find in its towns and farming communities.

The 96-mile (154-km) border cuts across mainland Britain from the North Sea to the Irish Sea, through an area that was fought over and the scene of cross-border raids for centuries.

The apparent lack of support for independence, gauged by conversations with borderers, suggests Scots here will not be swayed by old rivalries - something that the "Yes" campaign has tried to capitalize on.

"I think it's introducing one level of uncertainty that we do not require at this time," said Stephen Rendle, managing director of a tweed and cashmere mill in the Scottish Borders town of Hawick.

"Everybody I know feels Scottish enough, the identity of our company is Scottish enough, it's not going to be enhanced. And we only see it as an additional cost coming."

With just a few percent of Scotland's 5 million population, opinion here is not necessarily a barometer for the rest of the country. But polls show the Scottish National Party's (SNP) push for independence, something opposed by the British government and the opposition Labour party, faces an uphill struggle.

A survey this month showed only 25 percent of Scots backed independence, while 47 percent opposed. However, with just a year to go before the September 18, 2014, referendum, enough voters are "don't knows" to swing the vote.

The SNP, which runs Scotland's devolved government, says full independence will boost democracy and allow Scots to unshackle themselves from what they say is Britain's unrepresentative government.

In the last British general election, Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative party won only 16.7 percent of the vote. It holds only one of Scotland's 59 parliamentary seats as a result, a state of affairs that prompted jokes that there were more pandas in Scotland than Conservative lawmakers.

But opponents of independence say Scotland would be worse off economically and have far less influence in the world if it went it alone. And if it did break away, both camps agree that Britain's own global clout and the future of its Scotland-based nuclear deterrent would come under pressure too.

INTERTWINED

Along the border, where farming and tourism form the backbone of the economy, locals lead lives that straddle both countries. They do not welcome the prospect of formal division.

"I live in England, I work in Scotland. Where's my taxes going?" asked Paul Goodwin, landlord of "The First and Last" pub located just inside Scotland and decked out with Scottish flags, even though Goodwin himself is English.

Across the border in England, local historian Clive Hallam-Baker flies an English flag outside his house - a gesture he describes as a tongue-in-cheek response to Scots symbols. Yet his day-to-day life is entirely integrated with Scotland.

"Virtually all our services come from across the border. Scottish telephone, Scottish power, Scottish post office, we have a Scottish post code, we bank in Scotland at the Bank of Scotland," he said.

Hallam-Baker is chairman of the Remembering Flodden Project, a small charity dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the 1513 Battle of Flodden, a bloody defeat of the Scottish by the English that took place close to his house.

Events devoted to the battle - whose 500th anniversary was marked on Monday - bring together people from England and Scotland.

Gerald Tait, secretary of the Flodden 1513 Club, which commemorates the Scots who died in the battle, lives in Coldstream but is originally from northern England.

"Probably two thirds of the club are Scottish-born, but the rest are from over the border. There's very good banter," he said.

The culture of the border area is partially shaped by a long period of turbulence from the 13th to early 17th Century, when the region was lawless and roamed by Reivers, families who would mount cross-border plundering raids.

Towns in the Borders region of southeast Scotland hold annual "Common Ridings" or festivals, when residents ride out on horseback in a tradition dating back to the times when borderers would ride the boundaries of their lands to protect them.

The Ridings are a Scottish affair, but the history of the Reivers helps bind the area together, according to Wayne Lewins, who has run a pub in Coldstream for over a decade, although he is originally from just south of the border.

"The Scottish Reivers went south and did their raping and pillaging, and then the Northumbrian (English) Reivers went north and did their raping and pillaging. They're all related somehow, somewhere along the line."

Paul Wheelhouse, a pro-independence cabinet member of the devolved Scottish government, said the vote in the Borders region is tight, with many still undecided.

Independence could boost strong economic and cultural ties between the north of England and Scotland, he said.

Publician Lewins disagreed.

"Most of the Borders people are quite happy with the way things are. They like the status quo as it is. It works," he said.

(Editing by Andrew Osborn and Angus MacSwan)

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Spanish Catalonia presses independence bid with human chain

1 of 3. A woman holds an ''Estelada'' (Catalonia separatist flag) flag as she attends a ceremony to mark the ''Diada de Catalunya'' (Catalunya's National day) in central Barcelona September 11, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Gustau Nacarino

By Julien Toyer

BARCELONA, Spain | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:33pm EDT

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Catalans held hands in a 400-km (250-mile) human chain across their region on Wednesday to press the Spanish government to let them vote on breaking away and forming their own country.

Demonstrators in yellow T-shirts and draped in blue, red and yellow separatist banners raised their joined hands through cities and along rural roads, jumping and shouting in celebration when the chain was completed.

"We want a referendum to see whether there's majority support for independence. The problem is Spain won't listen. Our only hope ... is that Europe and the rest of the world put pressure on the Spanish government," said Ester Sarramona, a 39-year-old civil servant.

Sarramona and her husband and two children joined the chain in the heart of Barcelona, Catalonia's capital. Like many other Catalans, they said their region was treated unfairly over taxes and cultural issues such as the Catalan language.

A deep recession and cuts in public spending in Catalonia, a wealthy industrial region in the northeast that accounts for a fifth of Spain's economic output, have stirred discontent with the central government in Madrid.

Polls show backing for secession has risen steadily in Catalonia, with some registering support as high as 50 percent. An large majority of Catalans want the right to hold a vote on the issue, the polls show.

PYRENEES TO VALENCIA

The demonstration, on Catalan national day, comes as separatists try to revive their referendum drive. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalan President Artur Mas have signaled they are open to talks to end a year-long standoff over greater tax powers for the region.

Organizers said they accomplished their goal of forming an unbroken line from the Pyrenees in the north to the border with Valencia in the south, and television footage showed huge segments of the completed chain.

The act was inspired by a similar 1989 demonstration that helped the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania win independence from the Soviet Union.

Growing separatism in the region of 7.5 million people has become a major headache for Rajoy, who is mired in a corruption scandal and trying to pull Spain out of recession while also pushing through unpopular spending cuts.

Catalan separatists are watching closely a planned September 2014 Scottish referendum on independence from the United Kingdom, hoping it will promote the idea of self-determination for regions within countries that belong to the European Union.

Although Catalans have nurtured a separate identity for centuries, an independence movement surged recently as Catalans became disillusioned with limitations on the autonomy they gained in the late 1970s after the Francisco Franco dictatorship, which had suppressed Catalan nationalism.

Traffic clogged highways as police cut some roads to allow the chain to form.

"If we don't get a referendum people will just get more frustrated," said Bernat Cabero, a 53-year-old sculptor who lives in France and traveled home to Catalonia to participate.

PUSHING THE PRIME MINISTER

Rajoy says a referendum would be unconstitutional and has pledged to block it in the courts.

Opponents of independence argue the region has never been an entirely separate state. The Medieval Principality of Catalonia came under the Crown of Aragon, though it was allowed to run its own affairs through an institution known as the Generalitat.

The human chain linked up on Wednesday at exactly 17:14, symbolizing the year 1714 when King Philip V abolished the Generalitat after the War of the Spanish Succession.

Catalan President Mas has threatened to call an early election and use it as a plebiscite on secession if Rajoy uses the courts to block a referendum. This is seen as a risky move as his political alliance has lost ground while a more leftist separatist party has won support in the past year.

Mas is in a delicate position because the Catalan budget hole is so big that the central government had to bail out the region last year.

"We are talking with the Spanish government but I have a lot of doubts over whether it will be fruitful," Mas told foreign journalists on Wednesday morning.

Rajoy also has limited room for maneuver as any offer to Catalonia of better fiscal treatment or more political autonomy could spur protests in other Spanish autonomous regions such as the Basque Country.

(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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