Britain - Cameron in Scotland Talks - NYTimes.com Heading to Scotland for talks on an independence referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron said that he would fight "head, heart and soul" to prevent the breakup of the United Kingdom. Mr. Cameron was scheduled to hold his first meeting on the issue with the Scottish leader Alex Salmond, whose separatist party has long campaigned for the nation to leave its neighbors behind for the first time in more than 300 years. Mr. Salmond is seeking to hold an independence referendum in September 2014, hoping that a separation from London could be completed with a May 2016 election for the Scottish Parliament. Yet with opinion polls showing that only about a third of Scots currently favor splitting the nation, Mr. Cameron and other opponents are pressing for the vote to be held earlier. Scotland and England united in 1707 to form Great Britain, but Scotland gained significant autonomy after voting in 1997 to set up the semiautonomous Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.