Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is dependence.

Attainment of independence should not be confused with revolution, which typically refers to the violent overthrow of a ruling authority. While some revolutions seek and achieve national independence, others aim only to redistribute power — with or without an element of emancipation, such as in democratization — within a state, which as such may remain unaltered. Furthermore, some countries were granted independence without any revolutionary acts. The Russian October Revolution, for example, was not intended to seek national independence; the United States Revolutionary War, however, was.

Autonomy (in slight contrast) refers to a kind of independence which has been granted by an overseeing authority that itself still retains ultimate authority over that territory (see Devolution). A protectorate refers to an autonomous region that depends upon a larger government for its protection as an autonomous region. The dates of established independence (or, less commonly, the commencement of revolution), are typically celebrated as a national holiday known as an independence day.

Peter "Pete" Wishart (born 9 March 1962) is the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Perth and North Perthshire. He was the SNP Chief Whip at Westminster from 2001–2007 and is currently the party's Westminster Spokesperson for the Constitution, Home Affairs, Culture, Media and Sport and International Development. He is also a notable musician chiefly associated with the folk-rock band Runrig.

Born in Dunfermline in 1962, Wishart was educated at Queen Anne High School Dunfermline and Moray House College, Edinburgh. Wishart lives in Perth and has one son and enjoys walking in the Perthshire hills. Wishart is a trained Community Worker and has been a Director of the Fast Forward charity that promotes healthy lifestyles for young people. He was a member of the Scotland Against Drugs Campaign Committee and has contributed to many national forums looking at the problem of drugs within Scottish society.

Wishart was for 15 years a member of the Scottish group Runrig, and was the first MP to have appeared on the TV show Top of the Pops. Before Runrig, he had been in one of the lineups of Big Country. Donnie Munro, former lead singer of Runrig was to go on to an unsuccessful political career as a Labour party candidate. Wishart is a founder member of the parliamentary rock group MP4. The other members are Ian Cawsey (bass guitar and vocals), Greg Knight MP (drums) and Kevin Brennan MP (lead guitar and vocals).

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond ( /ˈsæmənd/; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Gordon. From 1987 to 2010 he served as Member of Parliament for Banff and Buchan in the UK House of Commons. Salmond previously held the position of leader of the SNP from September 1990 until he stepped down in September 2000.

Originally from Linlithgow, West Lothian, Salmond is a graduate of the University of St Andrews, where he achieved a Joint Honours MA in Economics and History. After earning his degree he began his career in the Government Economic Service (GES), and later joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as an energy economist where he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international media outlets.

Following the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, he was elected MSP for Banff and Buchan, thus simultaneously representing the area as both Member of Parliament (MP) and MSP. Salmond resigned as SNP leader in 2000 and did not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament. He did however retain his Westminster seat in the 2001 general election. Salmond was once again elected SNP leader in 2004 and the following year held his Banff and Buchan seat in the 2005 general election. In 2006 he announced his intention to contest the Gordon constituency in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, an election in which Salmond defeated the incumbent MSP and in which nationally, the SNP emerged as the largest single party. Salmond was voted First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 16 May 2007.

Tommy Sheridan (born 7 March 1964, Glasgow) is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity.

Sheridan was active as a Militant tendency entryist in the Labour Party, before leaving Labour as a member of Scottish Militant Labour (SML). He was a prominent campaigner against the poll tax in Scotland, and was jailed for six months for attending a warrant sale after Glasgow Sheriff Court had served a court order on him banning his presence. Sheridan has twice been jailed in connection with campaigning against the presence of the nuclear fleet at Faslane Naval Base - a presence which continues.

In 2006 in the case of Sheridan v News International he won an action for defamation against the News of the World and was awarded £200,000 damages. The following year, he was charged with perjury, for having told lies to the court in the defamation case. In the following weeks, six of his relations and colleagues were also charged. In October 2010, he appeared together with his wife Gail at a trial for perjury. While the charges against his wife were withdrawn, on 23 December 2010, Sheridan was convicted of perjury, and on 26 January he was sentenced to three years imprisonment. In the light of the News of the World phone hacking affair, the Crown Office has been ordered to reassess the case. He was released from prison on 30 January 2012, one year into his sentence.

John Adams (October 30, 1735 (O.S. October 19, 1735)  – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father, and the second President of the United States (1797–1801). He was also a lawyer, statesman, diplomat, political theorist, and a leading champion of independence in 1776. Hailing from New England, Adams, a prominent lawyer and public figure in Boston, was highly educated and represented Enlightenment values promoting republicanism. A Federalist, he was highly influential and one of the key Founding Fathers of the United States.

Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence and assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence. As a diplomat in Europe, he was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam bankers. A political theorist and historian, Adams largely wrote the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which soon after ended slavery in Massachusetts, but was in Europe when the federal Constitution was drafted on similar principles later in the decade. One of his greatest roles was as a judge of character: in 1775, he nominated George Washington to be commander-in-chief, and 25 years later nominated John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the United States.