Alex Salmond’s run of good luck shows no sign of ending. This morning the Scottish National Party (SNP) announced that Chris and Colin Weir, who won the £161m EuroMillions jackpot in July, have donated £1m to the party. It’s the largest donation in the SNP’s 77-year history and will be ring-fenced to fund the party’s referendum campaign. The party’s coffers had already been swelled by a £918,000 bequest from Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s former Makar (poet laureate).
Mrs Weir said:
We have been supporters of the SNP for a long time but this is about more than party politics.
Every society, every country should have the right and the opportunity to determine its own path. That’s something I’ve believed in strongly for a long time.
We want to give the people of Scotland a fair chance in the referendum campaign that’s why we are supporting the SNP now and into the independence referendum.
The only people with the right to decide Scotland’s future are the people of Scotland themselves and we want to support the SNP and the referendum campaign in helping Scotland make that decision fairly.
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The couple called on the SNP to “go full steam ahead for independence”. It’s a reminder of one of the biggest advantages the SNP have over their opponents. The referendum will be the most important political event of their lives and they will throw everything they have at the campaign. In the meantime, the question remains: who will lead the No campaign?
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