With many polls now showing the SNP ahead of Labour in the run up to the Scottish parliamentary elections, can we hope that Labour's puppet strings in Scotland will be severed?

Will Scotland at last be heading to independence?

As a Scot who sees the Union for the sham it has always been, I hope the year 2000 will usher Scotland towards membership in the European Union finally unfettered from Londons whimsical notion of caring for Scotland.