Scottish Independence: ‘His dream is dead’, Alex Salmond loses face to face debate with Alistair Darling who pulls off an epic devastating victory on STV, yesterday I said we are seeing the end of Alex Salmond’s career, does anyone doubt me now, does anyone doubt the George Laird view?

Dear All

Last night saw the debate happen between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling in Glasgow.

The battle was fought and won by Alistair Darling who pulled off an epic victory, in a snap poll ICM poll of 525 people; it found that 56 per cent thought Mr Darling had won hands down.

Alex Salmond has suffered his first but not last independence debate defeat in front of Alistair Darling. Last night the painful experience for Alex Salmond was that he had no answers to the serious questions on the major issues.

It was all bluff and bluster, it was all short term knee jerk reactions to various causes he has tagged on to his campaign such as foodbanks and bedroom tax..

He showed his contempt for not just the audience but also the viewing public by refusing to answer questions. Even the interviewer Bernard Ponsonby and audience members were having ago at Salmond in the show.

Scotland last night sent the SNP a clear message, the answer is No!

Salmond worked hard to sell the lie and vision of an independent Scotland with the powers to create a more just society. That feeble attempt crashed and burned, more to be laughed at and also pitied. Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon have done nothing in real terms to make Scotland a more equal and fair society. 

The SNP is a rich man’s party who court the rich!

Darling challenged Salmond over his currency plans as he used forensic questioning to take apart piece by piece Salmond’s arguments. Everything Salmond said showed he was now on the back foot through-out the debate trying to play catch up.

Afterwards both sides claimed victory after a session that was dominated by the economy but there was only one winner and that was Alistair Darling.

Alex Salmond’s dream is now dead!

We are now going to see the start of the breakup of the Yes Scotland campaign that has already started as the Radical Independence Campaign which includes Scottish Green party members, trade unionists and socialist and community activists start to distance themselves from Salmond and the SNP. They are planning mass canvasses of poor areas to hoodwink working class voters and try and sell the lie that a vote for independence isn’t a vote for Alex Salmond.

It is!

Salmond was expected to win easily last night but the fact he lost shows clearly that spin cannot win over substance, and the SNP strategists don’t have any plans, any vision and have done no work to prepare Scotland for an independence bid.

Right at the start of this miserable excuse for an independence campaign I said many things that needed to happen, all the mistakes I pointed out have now happened, the most important was tell the truth.

Instead the people of Scotland were treated with absolute contempt and lied to repeatedly.

John Curtice, a polling expert at Strathclyde University; said the overall poll findings were difficult for Alex Salmond, because he had been widely expected to win:

"In broad terms, it was a score draw, but given that was Alistair Darling's objective, that's a win for the no side."

The big killer of the evening was currency which will now be a stick to beat Salmond and Sturgeon with: Salmond argued that the pound belonged to Scotland and England. It does but only within the United Kingdom. If Scotland leaves, it won’t be as the debate got angry Darling effectively stamped his authority on Salmond and said the pound belonged to United Kingdom.

He added independence would lead to Scotland “scrabbling around with someone else’s currency”, which would be “foolishness of the first order”.

In a devastating putdown Darling said every eight-year-old knew that the Scottish flag was the Saltire and that the capital was Edinburgh, adding:

“You can’t even tell us what currency we would have.”

As Salmond lost the plot further knowing he had been beaten, he cited No supporting politicians had made outlandish claims about independence, including the suggestion that Scotland would drive on the right and would be vulnerable to alien attack.

Alex Salmond was all over the place trying to fight back in a contest he already lost.

Alistair Darling won last night and the SNP have no answer to that fact, this was a warm up fight, the gloves really come off when the debates switch to the BBC.

Those debates really will see no prisoners taken as the pressure ramps up on Salmond to produce a gamchanger.

Alistair Darling did the job that was expected of him last night, I was asked my opinion did I think he would win.

I said Alistair Darling would win it and George Laird is always right!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University