Scottish independence: don’t pander to a fool, Better Together need to get tough and stop Alex Salmond playing silly games, time for an ultimatum, agree dates or lose one or both BBC debates

Dear All

Alex Salmond likes to portray himself as someone who is super smart.

The truth is that other people have to do his thinking for him, strategists, however you could be forgiven for thinking he got rather short changed.

At present he and his idiots are playing a game, the object of the game is to try and make a fool out of Alistair Darling by refusing dates to debate with him on the BBC.

The solution to this problem is simple.

Ultimatum!

So far, Alex Salmond has turned down two offers of a head-to-head BBC debate with Darling. Salmond openly boasts his opponent has the “heebie jeebies” about taking him on.

Alex Salmond is an average debater with no eye for details, when he gets rattled he gets defensive and starts to crack.

His Scottish referendum campaign can be summed up in one word…… bullshit!

Alistair Darling has acted in good faith; he has accepted invitations to debate Mr Salmond on August 12 then August 21.

Salmond has turned both these dates down, you see it doesn’t matter when Darling meets Salmond, the SNP leader is going to lose; he wouldn’t be doing any game changers at these events.

He has run out of time, should people expect anything of substance?

Given he hasn’t generated anything of that nature during the entire campaign, you might think we will be subjected a bag of ‘goodies’ by Salmond.

He wants to ‘buy the vote’ because he can’t win the argument, that is why he is pushing the dates back, he wants two ‘Christmas specials’ where he plays the ‘hero’, his Braveheart moment.

My vote isn’t available to him at any price, Alex Salmond is a clown!

Yes Scotland is literally dying on its feet, they will continue the charade to the end, afterall they will want to milk as much money of the organisation before it has to officially wind up.

Today is the 1^st of August if nothing changes this month in a meaningful way, the end game is pretty much an epic vote of No confidence in Alex Salmond and unpopular Nicola Sturgeon. Already the Nationalists are looking like a defeated army in retreat, their activists are poorly trained, their cybernats are going bonkers as reality sets in, their MSPs and Cllrs shunted out to work aren’t even appearing on the radar.

Even Tommy Sheridan has pushed his way into the fray to take a position of sorts. Recently he was centre stage at the BBC bias protest down at the Quay. He was doing his man of the people routine which basically comes down to ‘comrades’, ‘brothers’ ‘sisters’ and whatever buzzwords these people use. He appeared happy as he did his ‘angry man’ speech while screaming into the microphone to the crowd.

But I take the view as long as he is happy let him get on with it.  

Better Together campaign is adamant the debate with Salmond should be held before Scots who have opted for a postal vote start casting their ballot papers.

So, this gets us back to ultimatum.

I am sure the BBC will do their best to find a compromise acceptable to both sides however, there comes a point when you have to say No!

Although Salmond will face Darling on STV in the first of a series of showdowns before polling day those talks initially collapsed due to Salmond being petty!  Darling agreed to demand that it be delayed until after the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The Nationalists were hoping for a Commonwealth Games bounce, and that isn’t happening for them.

Now, senior Better Together insiders say no compromise on their insistence that the BBC debate take place before Scots start voting by post.

This should be a red line; if the nonsense continues they should issue a statement saying one of the debates has been scrapped.

There comes a time, when being reasonable has run its course and is therefore a burden in negotiations.  

A spokesman for Salmond said:

“The First Minister looks forward to debating Alistair Darling on the BBC on a date that his diary permits”.

I would scrap all of the debates and walk away; you don’t pander to a fool!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University