It's exactly a generation ago today that the independence referendum took place, and as everyone and their auntie seems to be publishing mini-memoirs of their own experiences during the campaign, I thought I might as well briefly join in the fun.
There were three main aspects to my own involvement. One was Scot Goes Pop itself, which exploded in popularity as people searched for polling news and analysis. I always thought it was really interesting that there was no big increase in Scot Goes Pop's traffic levels during the 2011 Holyrood election campaign, even though that was one of the most important and dramatic elections in Scottish history and I was constantly blogging about polls throughout it. And yet even in autumn 2013, a whole year before the referendum, I was already seeing an exponential increase in reader numbers. People were really hungry to know whether there was a chance Scotland might become an independent country.
Secondly, there was the syndication on Yahoo of some of my columns for the International Business Times, which as I always point out, probably means I was the most-read pro-independence blogger during the indyref campaign, albeit just through the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time. I have a friend who is rarely impressed by anything I do, but she actually did look momentarily impressed when she glanced at the Yahoo homepage and saw one of my articles staring back at her!
And thirdly, there were my two appearances on BBC Breakfast during referendum week, one before the referendum, and one after. For obvious reasons the one beforehand was much more nerve-wracking, because there was the slight danger that if I had said or done something really stupid, it might have had a detrimental effect. But it went OK in the end. When I was asked by Naga Munchetty why I thought Scotland should be independent, I made a point of starting by saying "well, Scotland is a country", which was something I thought hadn't been said enough on TV and radio during the campaign.
I did feel very slightly stitched up, though, because the item was supposed to be two bloggers, one Yes and one No, giving their own personal views about independence. In practice, Dunc "don't call me Dunc" Hothersall was always inevitably going to be my opponent because he was the only unionist blogger in the known universe, and he was there as a de facto Better Together spokesman. He had obviously been thoroughly briefed on exactly what to say, and indeed he was deep in conversation with Kezia Dugdale when I arrived. Whereas I genuinely was there independently and hadn't been briefed by the Yes campaign at all. But I did my best. The irony is that I had made up my mind in advance that the one thing I definitely wasn't going to do was criticise the BBC live on air, but Duncan effectively forced me into it, because Better Together had clearly instructed him to make a song and dance about the "mob" protesting outside the BBC Scotland building in Glasgow. I replied that it was a peaceful protest from people who had a legitimate complaint because "the BBC, not BBC Scotland but the BBC in London, haven't exactly covered themselves in glory over the last week". When I said the words "in London", Duncan started beaming and pointing at Naga Munchetty, as if to say "yeah, he's talking about you, hun".
It wasn't even remotely premeditated, but looking back I'm glad I said what I did, because it at least flagged up for viewers that the concerns were there. And arguably there's not much point complaining retrospectively about the BBC's bias during the campaign if you didn't raise the issue at the time when you had the golden chance.
When I made the return appearance two days after the referendum, Duncan was supposed to be there again, but for some reason he was replaced by the Tories' Mark Brown, who actually struck me as a decent bloke. I chatted to him before the filming started, and he seemed as genuinely keen as any Yes supporter that the promise made in The Vow of a more powerful Scottish Parliament was kept. And after the interview, he gave me a bearhug and bellowed "WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER JAMES".
Incidentally, when I was first contacted by the BBC producer about the second appearance, probably at about 3pm on Friday 19th September, he asked me if I could help to put him in touch with anyone senior from the Yes campaign, because he had been baffled to discover that the entire Yes Scotland organisation seemed to have already disappeared in a puff of smoke. The significance of what he said didn't really register with me at the time, but it's arguably something we've been suffering from ever since.
Do we know why Yes Scotland vanished so quickly and pretty much deleted everything?
ReplyDeleteTasmina brought along her notes from the Yes Scotland board meetings to the event on Saturday (she mentioned how many Yes meetings took place in the final weeks) and said how glad she was that she still has those notes due the official records being deleted.
That closing paragraph, and the Tory Better Together bearhug, really captures our mistake upon narrow defeat in 2014. Not the Yes movement, not the grassroots, but the leadership behaved exactly as if this really had been a once in a lifetime event and now we were defeated forever. Wind it up, folks. Resign, delete the files, and "move on."
DeleteThey played right into Better Together's narrative. No wonder we're still stuck!
Yes, it's not like Tasmina to delete things.
DeleteEven today the Yes Scotland Twitter/X account has 80K Followers, the last tweet is 10 years old as well. I'm guessing no one has access to that account now. What a waste.
DeleteTen years ago I was on holiday with friends on Skyros. How things have changed in that time. I have eschewed my earlier interest in manifesting and have somehow become a figurehead of the independence movement in Scotland. Thank you one and all.
DeleteApart from a few RIBs darting about on the water the marines who garrison Faslane are pretty much invisible. A few Dutch soldiers who train on local ranges are sometimes seen in town in uniform.
ReplyDeleteIn just the last few days of the referendum campaign groups of off duty troops in 'civvies', some with unit identities on their bomber jackets, drifted into Helensburgh looking for pubs, all quite low profile.
To my knowledge it hasn't happened since. Coincidence ?
John Swinney was part of that strength in the yes campaign 10 years ago and he brings back a lot of the strength today as First Minister. To move forward the people who voted yes should stick with the SNP. United with John to win in 2026.
ReplyDeleteStrange, we've heard that one (a thousand times from you) before. Humza's well and truly settling into the rôle now, isn't he?
DeleteSwinney's winning nothing but defeat. He should step aside, but he never will because the man's the embodiment of everything that's wrong in the post-indyref SNP.
To be fair John has hit the ground running since being installed.
DeleteHe's grown in sureness-of-touch and made a great speech at conference.
DeleteThis is such an obvious troll post. No one is this thick.
DeleteIf only there weren’t still a few thousand of them in the party! Swinney’s still popular there, I’m sure. “Just give him a chance, he’s an honest man.” Etc.
DeleteIt feels like a long, long time indeed since a political party last elected a good leader. The memberships are swivel eyed numpties (Truss, Humza, Corbyn) while the fixers in the smoke filled rooms haven’t done much better (Sunak, Swinney).
Where’s the leadership we need? Where’s everyone with any talent gone?
Put your name forward!👏 naw don’t bother you sound like a Brit Nat loser
DeleteJohn is busy making arrangement with U K govt to hold commonwealth games in Glasgow in election year, thus allowing the opportunity for Butchers Aprons to be put up all over Scotland. Unbelievable error of judgement. And yes I know Scotland competes as a nation in these games but if you are naive enough to think that will stop them, you are part of the problem.
Delete@12:48. I’m just a punter, like you mate. My resume doesn’t have the requisite cushy jobs at law firms, media firms, and as advisers for those in the leadership clique. No time of day for me. I matter as little to them as you do, or Scotland.
Delete@1:13 Kevin McKenna's the man for you.
DeleteA very good blog James. Well apart from the very first line that is. It’s exactly TEN YEARS since the referendum, not “a generation”.
ReplyDeleteHope you don’t mind me pointing that out.
That's like saying "there are twelve slices of bread in this loaf, not a dozen". You call it ten years, I call it a generation, it's all the SAME THING, KC.
DeleteDefine a generation?
DeleteThe only definition of a political generation in UK statute is 7 years as stated in The Northern Ireland Act 1998. 7 years was deemed to be a reasonable amount of time between referendums on constitutional change in Northern Ireland, why shouldn't it be the same for Scotland?
If anything given the troubled history in Northern Ireland there isn't really a valid argument for them being able to hold referendums more frequently than us.
The 7 year thing in NI is a minimum.
DeleteYeah but why is 7 years considered a reasonable minimum length of time between referendums in NI but 10 years isn't long enough for Scotland?
DeleteAsk A S.
DeleteIn Scotland Salmond screwed up by calling too soon.
DeleteThe generation thing is a red herring - read the Edinburgh Agreement
Delete"In Scotland Salmond screwed up by calling too soon".
DeleteMate, if after winning a majority in the Scottish Parliament on a manifesto commitment to pursue independence via a referendum wasn't pursued there would have been a revolt in the Party calling for Salmond's resignation.
The Party of Independence achieving power after over 7 decades of it's existence not pursuing that aim would have been unthinkable.
The placard held by Sturgeon/Salmond during indyref1 shown on the tv at present says ONE OPPORTUNITY - one opportunity. One opportunity in 307 years and counting. The generation thing is just lies made up by Britnats like KC who if they had their way they would never have another one because they would lose it.
DeleteSwitzerland have referendums all the time. It disnae seem to be a problem for one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Questions of intentionality are obviously difficult, but why do people think Sturgeon missed these chances to pursue independence? It was noted above the crucial opportunity she had after Brexit.
ReplyDeleteBecause she tasted Remainer fame in London and decided that she liked it.
DeleteCobblers
DeleteProve it! What was her master plan?
DeleteThere was none. She just loved her stardom in the London media. Holding Alastair Campbell’s hand on Remainer Pride gave her the warm fuzzies she couldn’t get from “parochial” Scotland. Like so many Scots before her, she fell in love with empire. Poor soul. London’s love for her was gone as quick as Remain’s hopes to overturn England’s choice.
In the real world Brexit was not an opportunity for Indy, and Covid was a disaster. The media would have crucified the Indy movement for politicising Covid to advance Indy. Big chunk of the mythical ten years doing nothing is suddenly eaten up. You can legitimately criticise the SNP for their conduct in government and as a supposedly Indy party over the past four years. The criticism would be deserved, and at present the prospect of Indy is as remote as it has been in past twenty years. But don’t continue this generic 10 year crap. It’s a gift to Unionists, somewhat like John Swinney agreeing to hold their unionist commonwealth games in Glasgow in election year. Can he be that stupid? If the answer is no then I fear the infiltration at top level is simply continuing. Depressing.
Delete@1.10 is that you Stuart?
DeleteAnon@1:12pm,
DeleteSturgeon did politicise Covid though, grandstanding every day at her briefings. It was absolutely disgraceful, trying to make political gain from a tragedy. But hey, it’s what Nats do.
Yes all the Nats used covid to try to boost their image. Baith Scots and Brit /English Nats did that.
DeleteIt also didn't help that during the Covid briefings she couldn't help herself but comment on the Salmond case which was ongoing at that point and she also gave concrete assurances to journalists that all of her WhatsApp messages would be made available to a future inquiry (but were later deleted despite those assurances).
DeleteWhy was she gunning so hard against the man synonymous with indyref? Hmm…
DeleteNikki was working for the spooks and Leslie Evans was her handler; whether she was got at - the lavender marriage and other things - or just wisnae intae it, matters little
DeleteWhat is it with you lot and your fetish for Sturgeon. Stop
DeleteMaking things up. There is plenty to legitimately criticise and you are still harping on with this crap. No wonder we’re fecked with morons like you, Move on or just GTF.
Who’s holding us up now? Oh, aye, all of us plebs on the internet, not the leadership. Clearly. You can hardly move for all the indyrefs they’ve given us.
DeleteTamsina complained about the disappearance of the Yes campaign on the 19th of September and expressed some bafflement about it in her comments on Saturday night. But weren’t Canavan and her in charge? If it wasn’t them, then who made the decision?
ReplyDeleteAlex Salmond was still leader of the SNP for another two months after that, so it can't be blamed on Sturgeon either.
DeleteAnon @ 12:32 PM
DeleteYes Scotland was a separate organisation from the SNP. Blair Jenkins was in charge of it.
Ten years on, it’s time for the SNP SG (for once) to concentrate on the day job of running the country, and forget about this independence nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe country gave a resounding NO in 2014, and ten years on, despite years of the Tories and Brexit, support is no higher.
Time to stop dividing the country and give up on the crackpot idea of independence.
Rule Britannia.
Screw Brittania.
DeleteTruss May Johnson Blair Starmer Prince Andrew and co- stuff the anglobrits
Delete@3.24 Back Tae the Daily Express with ye.
DeleteCurious to know James’s thoughts on Prof. Curtice’s indyref study which compares attitudes between indy Scotland in the EU and our present status. It’s always encouraging to know there’s support for independence, especially now the Tories are out of power, but I find it perpetually confounding just how little all this change since 2014 affects the top line “Should Scotland be an independent country: Yes or No.”
ReplyDeleteThe issue though is that people need to know that there's a realistic prospect of it actually happening.
ReplyDeleteThe rhetoric that we just need to increase support and then it will magically become clear how to enact it is laughable. Those kind of blind faith days are behind us.
The 2014 campaign also showed that we need something to unite behind/work towards (such as a vote date) for there to be an effective campaign.
When was the largest increase in support for independence taking it from below 30% to 45% and what facilitated that kind of increase?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should try to replicate what shifted the dial previously?
The Wee Blue Book caused a lot of that.
ReplyDeleteThus the De Facto route.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is: people have to believe you’re serious. If you win you’ll UDI. Would Swinney? Ha! Would Kate? Would any of them?
It would be a hell of a lot easier to put UDI on the table if our European neighbours gave us their public, open support. Mind, they’re hardly going to do that without us even asking them.
Few would have read it, though, without the referendum coming up that September. There’s nothing like an honest to god democratic event to focus minds.
ReplyDeleteThe wee blue book was simplistic nonsense. Most people had never heard of it. Read by perhaps a couple of thousand. If it had been a threat it would have been easily debunked.
ReplyDeleteso you would rather listen to the robbers who robbed us telling how poor we are
DeleteI'd never heard of it until about two years after the referendum. I'd never heard of wings either.
DeleteWT on the ball.
DeleteMe neither. I’d seen Wings before indyref, but dismissed it for looking a bit fascist with that logo, and the ranty style of posts. Eventually checked back in again for curiosity’s sake in the postmortem and started hearing about the wee blue book at that point. Never have seen a physical copy. This from an Edinburgh native who walks home via The Mound and Princes Street most weekdays. It wasn’t hard to miss.
DeleteThey would so obviously not support it either publicly or in private.
ReplyDeleteAt a bare minimum a democratic vote at the ballot box proving that Scots want independence puts us in a different position from the status quo. From that moment it stops being a hypothetical & opens up other legal avenues to pursue.
ReplyDeleteCompetent honest govt would in part do that. For the past four to five years we have had the opposite. SNP must accept responsibility for this if we are to move forward. And we have to accept responsibility as individuals. Are we all armed with sufficient information on core issues to engage one to one with no voters and persuade them to change? And we are still waiting for the person responsible for negating the lies and disinformation of BBC to be appointed. When is that happening? Is Swinney unaware of this?
ReplyDeleteFor a start, people need to stop believing everything they read in a TicTok feed of their choice and proclaiming that the BBC news service is completely corrupt. Especially about flooding in Romanian, which is a BBC/UK State fabrication... Oh, and everyone in the SNP works for MI8, as does my local tailor, the moon landing was fake, and everything Donald Trump says is Fact ('cause he's Scottish). Use serling and join the EU with no border checks, one barrel of crude oil = $150, eveyone gets a cheque for £6,000, and we can be like Estonia (what?). Very strangely, that's still where the independence campaign is. Unfortunately, that looks like where the independence campaign will be for another decade.
DeleteGod almighty, we've to suffer BBC shortbread at Pacific Quay for another decade ?
Deletewe need to listen to the people who were in power for the last decade, with umpteen mandates and did sod-all with them, to tell us how to progress forward
ReplyDeleteJohn Swinney is both competent and honest. The right choice for leader.
ReplyDeleteI swear the person who keeps commenting how spectacular John Swinney is must be a unionist taking the piss.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how incompetent Swinney was as education sectretery three years ago, I think the guy is doing caberet.
DeleteAsh Regan's Holyrood motion today: "10 years on from the Scottish independence referendum, the next democratic opportunity must be set, with a commitment to use the Scottish Parliament election list vote as a plebiscite for the people of Scotland to demonstrate their constitutional choice for independence".
ReplyDeleteWould you be surprised to learn that every single SNP & Green MSP voted alongside the unionists against the motion?
KC at 8.21pm I have asked you before to explain why it is embarrassing. Go on gives us an insight to the mind of a Britnat.
DeleteTo KC, Scotland is embarrassing, he is embarrassing, and the very thought of independence is utterly mortifying.
DeleteAnon@9:01,
DeleteYou’re correct, independence dosen’t bear thinking about.
Not happening though.
Thought so, KC. Seriously, I think you’d get a lot out of reading Fanon’s book about growing up and leaving his homeland: Martinique. To be more French than the French, rolling their Rs in Paris, wondering why Parisians looked at them the way they did. Excuse my looks, my French brothers…
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Skin,_White_Masks
Not a word from KC. Unable to put forward a positive case for staying in the UK.
DeleteAh, morning IFS.
DeleteNot seen much from you lately! Still not got over the nationalists humping at the GE?
Maybe you can explain why the SNP, or indeed any supporters of independence haven’t, after all these years, been able to address in a positive way the really important issues regarding independence.
I’m talking about the likes of Currency, border with England, taxation, pensions, loss of billions we get from Westminster each year through the Barnett formula, etc, etc.
All that money wasted by the SNP on these glossy independence leaflets, yet none of the really important issues addressed. I wonder why!
Of course, all but the gullible and brainwashed know these issues can’t be addressed in a positive way. Hence the main reason support for independence remains below 50%.
I await your response. In your own time IFS, no rush.
KC answers my request with his own multiple requests. Sorry KC I asked you first and on many occasions - give us your case for staying in the UK with leaders like FREE GEAR KIER who likes to give arms to Israel to blow children to bits.
DeleteKC thinks Scotland is the only nation in the world that cannot possibly be independent but cannae explain why. Now that is a perfect example of a brainwashed subservient faithful lap dog.
IFS,
DeleteDear oh dear! Is that the best you can do? Usual nationalist deflection from you.
I mean, what has Israel got to do with Scottish independence and the points I put to you.
You honestly couldnae make it up!
New Scottish Westminster poll out from Opinium. Slab plunging to 25%. SNP not particularly able to capitalise on that but still opening a 7 point lead. Reform nipping at the Tories' heels.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly the honeymoon Starmer and Sarwar would have hoped for.
You’re an egomaniac.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how popular Reform is in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteLike the daily mail and Land Rovers, it comes along for the ride with a certain especially numerous demographic of economic migrant…
DeleteIt isn’t.
DeleteThe poll looks like bullshit to me.
ReplyDeleteShouldnae use Keir Starmer's £2000 specs!
DeleteI suggest everyone looks up the meaning of 'plebicite', and starts using 'single issue election manifesto'. A term that at least is accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe people using it are the same boosters that convinced Scotland that the the Scottish child payment isn't isn't exactly the same as child benefit in England & Wales, and wasn't increased to a max of £26 last year to keep up with the Tories in Westminster.
We would all get cheques for £6,000 from the government and we would use £UK and join the EU and have no border checks and oil will be $150/bbl. In ten years, there doesn't seem to have been any improvement on Salmond in a wing-chair on the tartan carpet in front of the burning wood spuoting drivel.
ReplyDeleteIt's illuminating that the the most thought-out study/SNP policy about an independent Scottish state involves George Osboure austerity on steroids for the indefinate future with monetary policy run by the Bank of England for the indefinate future. Produced by a corporate lobbyiest firm, of course. I don't think the SNP have bothered to do anything else. You know - like why you would bother having a referendum on EU membership when we use another country's courancy and don't qualify for membership of anything. And that's been it for a decade???? WTF. Inept morons????????
ReplyDeleteWhen we got an SNP paper produced overnight proclaiming that the international oil price was going to be inexplicably stratospheric, ect, ect, it was a festival of rubbish for most people. Please don't forget about most people.
ReplyDeleteHow's the weather in Northumberland Street ?
ReplyDelete