Queen Elizabeth electrified the Scottish independence debate with her first public comments at the weekend. But in what may prove to be an even more significant intervention, the American satirist Stephen Colbert has come out for secession.
“Folks, any time people are angrily demanding something and I don’t entirely understand why, I am with them,” said Colbert in a Monday night segment on The Colbert Report.
“I stand with my secessionist brothers,” said Colbert, revealing a kilt he would keep on for the rest of the show. “Today, I, Stephen Colbert, am a proud Scotsman. Ich bin ein Edinburgher.”
Colbert traced the struggle for independence to the days of William Wallace.
He then played the famous scene from Braveheart of Mel Gibson addressing the battlefield – with a minor edit to the dialogue. “They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom to calculate pension benefits, rates of inflation or earnings. Whichever is higher.”
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Colbert also explained how the vote could affect UK prime minister David Cameron: “If he loses Scotland, he’ll have win India back at the craps table.”
To better understand the effects a winning yes campaign would have on the UK, Colbert welcomed Guardian US assistant editor Matt Wells to his desk.
“Will this be chaos for people in England?” said Colbert.
“I think it will be difficult,” said Wells.
“Is that an English word for firebombing or something like that? Difficult, what does difficult mean in English?”
“Frankly, it’ll be cataclysmic.”
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