We were told that
Salmond was the best orator in the country.
We were told that Salmond was the best debater in the country. We were told, in short that Salmond was a big
beast of the political landscape, both here and UK wide.
So how did
Salmond lose a debate against Labour’s own version of John Major, Alistair
Darling?
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| Salmond, STV's Bernard Ponsonby and Darling |
The first thing
to point out is that, in spite of the dominance of the SNP and the loud claims
of supporters of Independence, polling still shows a lead for those who would
like us to stay in the union. The poll
unveiled at the start of STV’s debate tonight showed a 42/58 split in favour of
the union, though with a rise in support for Independence. This means that Darling’s “Better Together”
campaign has a lead to defend. It might
be a stretch for this to justify the notorious “Project Fear”, but it explains
Darling’s performance tonight.
What it doesn’t
explain was Salmond’s poor performance tonight.
The First Minister needed to convince undecided’s (I suppose like
myself) that Independence is a project worth buying into. Instead we got the soundbites that have been
rattling about the MacTwittersphere since… well probably the launch of Yes
Scotland over two years ago.
After the opening
arguments, Darling aggressively questioned Salmond over his plan for a
Sterlingzone. It was at this point that
Salmond’s night came close to collapse when Darling asked and asked and asked
for Salmond’s plan B. Salmond stuck to
his guns about the pound being as much ours.
I’ve said before that I don’t think Sterlingzone would be in the best
interests of I-Scotland, surrendering fiscal powers to our biggest competitor
is not good politics, while my short to medium term preference would be for a “Scottish”
Pound tacked to Sterling. I just don’t
get the Pro-Indy camp’s dogged ideological preference for Sterlingzone.
Salmond’s choice
of questions didn’t help him. Instead of
focusing on the arguments regarding Westminster’s intransigence towards
Scotland or maybe their economic arguments (currency aside), Salmond went on
Project Fear asking darling questions about Better Together’s apparent statements
on I-Scotland’s policy towards driving on the right and aliens. Salmond sort of wound up to trying to get
darling to agree with Cameron over… well
I’m not sure. I think when Salmond
opened his set of questions on “Project Fear” he lost the debate there and
then.
The second part
of the debate was a straight audience participation section. This section, in truth felt like a sort of
lull. Darling was essentially just
sowing doubt regarding Salmond’s claims, while Salmond fell into the trap of
regurgitating all of the Pro-Indy’s soundbites.
This has been the
aim all along for Better Together, to essentially defend their poll lead. As notorious (and at times laughable) Project
Fear has been, it has mostly preserved their poll lead. It’s also meant that it’s been incumbent on
Yes Scotland to make the running – which they haven’t. I tweeted that Darling skewered Salmond on
Sterlingzone and did nothing else – because he didn’t need to do anything
else. Darling’s job was maybe done, but
Salmond was very poor tonight.
For long and
weary, I’ve said that Scotland will vote to stay in the union for as long as
the SNP and Yes Scotland persist with Sterlingzone and with the current line
regarding EU membership – policies I’ve dubbed “The Salmond Plan”. Tonight was conclusive proof that for all
that the grassroots campaign has been the most successful part of their campaign
that will count for nothing with “The Salmond Plan”. I’m not sure how Salmond can reverse out of
this cul de sac. The time to do
something is now running out, while tonight was a definite missed opportunity
for pro-Independence supporters.
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