In the cold light of day

It is 08:00 on Thursday 24 April 2025. I had to type that just to remind myself because last night's 'One year on. One year to go.' event felt more like ten years back and plenty of time to go, In the immediate aftermath of the meeting, I felt the 'discussion' had been invigorating even if not very productive. In the cold light of a new day, I'm tending to revise that assessment downwards.

Let me be clear from the outset. I sincerely appreciate the effort put in by the organisers of the event. It is important that we have such public debates and significant that there is still an appetite for them. I'm told the viewing figures for the livestream - courtesy of Independence Live - were excellent. The venue (Northern Hotel) was ideal, the staging was first class, with good lighting and sound and if the audience was a bit smaller than we might have hoped this is explained by some kind of administrative mix-up, I'm told. Nothing I say here should detract from the fact that everyone involved made the evening work. That is a notable achievement in itself.

The format was slightly problematic with five panellists plus Kenny Braes who very ably chaired the discussion. With that number of panellists, either their remarks have to be brief, or the number of points covered must be curtailed, Kenny did well to achieve a fair balance. I certainly have no complaints as I reckon I was given more than my fair share of time - not least because a number of questions from the floor were addressed to me. The difficulty lies in the fact that as the speaking-stick gets passed around the table, the topic gets changed and by the time it's your turn to speak the discussion has moved on from the thing you wanted to comment on. That can be quite frustrating.

What really disappointed me was the performance of my fellow panellists - Eva Comrie, Peter Ashby, Neale Hanvey, and Alan Petrie. All fine people, I'm sure. There is no doubting their commitment to Scotland's cause and there was much that I agreed with in what they said. The disappointment has more to do with my expectations of the event rather than any deficiency in the other participants. My hope was that it would be a discussion of the practicalities of making the 2026 election work for the benefit of Scotland's cause as well as the practicalities of restoring Scotland's independence. That's not how it turned out.

What we got from the other panellists was a series of election speeches. As I was the only one there not seeking election, I was focused on what I had hoped the evening would be about. Recounting and explaining the practicalities mentioned can make for rather dry fare. Election speeches are by their very nature the opposite of this. I was trying to inform the audience. The others were trying to stir the crowd. Which is fine if you are delivering a speech at an election hustings. And some of the panellists are really good at the whole political rhetoric thing with the customary talk of ending poverty and inequality and injustice and all the rest. To my ear, it all sounded shallow and simplistic. Which is what election speeches usually are. Perhaps they can't be anything else. I had hoped for something different. I suppose I was bound to be disappointed.

Lately, I have found cause mostly for despair and despondency when considering the future of Scotland's cause. Last night did nothing to lift my dark mood. Quite the contrary. The general reaction to my brief outlining of the #ScottishUDI process was that it is all too complicated. Maybe I didn't explain it very well. Or maybe people have grown so accustomed to being fed slogans and soundbites they no longer have any appetite for more substantial stuff. The politicians and wannabe politicians on the panel were concerned that they would be unable to explain things 'on the doorsteps'. But even if the process was as difficult to explain as they made out, and even if voter were as stupid as they seemed to suppose, that doesn't alter the reality which the #ScottishUDI deals with. None of them sought to address that reality preferring to indulge the magical thinking of voting strategy solutions and the fantasy politics of sweeping the SNP from power and/or the UN riding into town to sort out the whole situation for us.

This is worrying. Because if we approach the 2026 election in the manner which last night's event foretells, we will see no benefit for Scotland's cause. It will be just another election with just the usual unedifying spectacle of party politicking. In the cold light of day, that's all I can see.