WITH hopes pinned on an independence referendum taking place in 2024, campaign hires are taking place and policies being drawn up.

However, it’s not in Scotland but California that this fresh push for a Yes vote is underway.

The movement for the state to secede from the US began five years ago, with organisers saying they were inspired by the Scottish referendum in 2014.

Now campaigners say it has renewed impetus as Covid-19 leads to rising tensions between state and central government – while the possibility of another victory for President Donald Trump in November’s election looms as an unwelcome prospect for a state which has voted Democrat since 1992.

Netflix show The Politician is also helping bring the idea into the mainstream, with Gywneth Paltrow playing a character who runs for governor of California on a promise to lead its secession from the US.

Against this background, Yes California announced it has appointed Scot Alastair Caithness as an adviser for its “Calexit” campaign, a Scottish independence supporter who moved to San Diego in 2015.

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Speaking to the Sunday National, he said the campaign has put together a fresh bill to secede, which is seeking to get a parliament with proportional representation set up as a first step.

“It is not going to be straight independence, they are looking to get more devolution at this stage,” he says.

“They want a vote for 2024 and at that point we will move to devolution.

“The way the structure of American politics works with states anyway, I don’t think it would take as long as in Scotland from creating their own government to pushing for independence.

“They are looking maybe to 2032 independence.”

Caithness spent around 20 years working in the oil industry in Aberdeen, and since moving to the US founded firm Ziyen Energy, focused on using block-chain technology as a new way of investing.

He says: “Right now, if you wanted to invest in a wind farm, you would have to be a pension fund or stick in £50 million to own something of it. That’s why it is only governments and huge investors involved in these things.

“We will tokenise a piece of that and allow fractional ownership of it and then trade investment for people who want to own a little bit of an energy asset that gives them distributions on a quarterly or six monthly basis, based on how much electricity they create.”

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He wants to use this expertise in his new role as cryptocurrency adviser for the Calexit campaign to form new policies.

The idea is once independence is achieved, every resident would get fractional ownership of government assets under this model.

The profits from this would be paid to individuals and used to set up services such as free education, free healthcare and a level of universal basic income.

He said: “You have got to give people some form of basic universal income right now – what are we going to do, just let everyone starve in the street as the economy has collapsed?

“Especially in somewhere like California, where 40% of the people are involved in some kind of retail work, restaurants and bars. With these places all closed, what are they going to do?”

It might sound a far-fetched concept, but Caithness argues block-chain technology is the “next iteration of the internet” –which no-one imagined would have such an impact when it was first launched.

He is also advising the Libertarian Party on plans for a new cryptocurrency, a political group which advocates individual freedom and limiting the scope and scale of government.

He adds: “The model [for Calexit] is a bit like the sovereign fund in Norway, when they set that up for the people.

“Right now if you live in Alaska, you get a dividend every year based on the percentage of the oil. All this is doing is taking that similar model.”

Caithness says there are around 160,000 members in the Yes California movement.

It is small number in a state which has a population of nearly 40 million, but he believes momentum for the campaign is growing.

In order for the vote to take place on November 5, 2024, the proposal will have to be backed by more than half a million signatures.

Another challenge for Calexit is shaking off controversy around Russian links to the campaign, which led to one of its founders Louis Marinelli stepping down as leader and withdrawing a proposed ballot initiative three years ago.

Another founder, Marcus Ruiz Evans, subsequently took over as president and the group relaunched.

Caithness believes the Russia links are being used as an easy way to discredit and put “black marks” on the movement.

“If you are involved in the Calexit movement, the first thing people say is you must be Russian,” he says.

“But what has it got to do with Russia? It has to be voted for by the California people in order for it to happen.”

He continued: “They just go straight to that argument, especially the right-wing media here.”