Reality bit in Scotland this week! After the warm glow of the Commonwealth Games, the record medal haul for ‘Team Scotland’ and the overwhelming public support the event generated, we were quickly back into the cut and thrust of the referendum debate.
It was almost as if Glasgow 2014 never happened. Coverage soon went from mass back-slapping on a brilliant job done by organisers, volunteers and competitors to trying to work out what impact the Games would have on the outcome of September’s vote (probably not much in reality).
On Tuesday attention shifted to the most eagerly awaited event of the campaign so far; the first in a series of live television debates between the Frist Minister, Alex Salmond, and the leader of the Better Together Campaign, Alistair Darling, screened by Scottish Television.
Ahead of the clash, the Yes campaign will have taken heart from an Ipsos MORI poll reporting that the gap in voting intentions has continued to close, with support for independence rising to 42% once those who are undecided are removed from the results. There was also an expectation that the First Minister would emerge victorious from the debate (Ladbrokes offered 2/5 on that outcome) offering the potential for the gap in the polls to close further.
The debate included a range of formats, from the opportunity for the two men to question and challenge each other, to each responding to questions and opinions raised by the studio audience, all expertly moderated by STV’s political editor Bernard Ponsonby.
So who won? Certainly Alistair Darling was seen as having done better than expected. Much of the media reaction focussed on the exchanges between the two over the currency options in the event of a ‘Yes’ vote in September. But the former chancellor was viewed as less convincing when the Frist Minister asked him no fewer than 21 times whether he agreed with David Cameron that Scotland could be a "successful independent country". Maybe the real winners were STV whose peak audience during the debate was over 1 million people.
Just as we were recovering from the excitement of the debate and its fallout, we were suddenly subjected to the latest attempt at ‘love-bombing’ from south of the border when over 200 public figures published an open letter urging Scots to vote ‘No’ on September 18th. While the letter was clear that the decision in September is ‘absolutely yours alone’ it does run the risk of coming over to voters as patronising. And the Yes campaign was quick to respond that the bonds would remain in the event of independence. If nothing else at least the episode will be remembered for spawning a range of jokes about Mick Jagger wanting ‘No Satisfaction!’
Six weeks to go...