BILLY INDEPENDENCE MAY BE WAY TO GO
Pro-union Billy says split with rest of UK may be the way to go after Brexit disaster
SIR Billy Connolly is changing his mind about Scottish independence in the wake of the Brexit vote “disaster”.
The Big Yin supports the union and he once ridiculed Holyrood as a “wee pretendy parliament”.
But he says Britain’s decision to leave Europe has made him think again.
In his new book Made in Scotland, Sir Billy writes: “One thing I’ve never had any interest in is hating England and the English.
“I like Thomas Hardy as much as I like Robert Burns. As an Anglophile, I’ve never shouted for Scottish independence but I might be changing my mind now.
“The Brexit vote is a disaster and the breaking up of the togetherness of Europe is a crime bordering on a sin.
“I think the more people are together, not separate, the happier they will be.
“The most important thing for Scotland is to keep our contact with Europe.
“Scots voted to stay in Europe and if the only way for us to do that is to become independent from England, that may just be the way to go. And I never thought I would say that.”
Sir Billy, 75, also reveals the toll that Parkinson’s disease has taken on his life following his diagnosis in 2012.
He writes: “My Parkinson’s disease dominates my life to quite a large degree nowadays.
“When I go into a restaurant, I have to look around and work out where to sit and choose somewhere that it won’t take me a long time to get up from.
“I sometimes ask the waiter, ‘Listen, I might have trouble getting out of this chair when I have finished eating. Will you hang about and help me?’ They always say yes.”
The Glaswegian, who has put himself forward as a stem-cell research “guinea pig” to find a cure for the disease, wants “to become part of Scotland” when he dies, buried in a wicker casket or a sheet with a tree planted on top.
He has told wife Pamela Stephenson his epitaph should read: “Jesus Christ, is that the time already?” ●Made in Scotland: My Grand Adventures in a Wee Country, Penguin, £20.