No chance for the Yes love -in
Indyref fans had a treat at the weekend: a once-in-ageneration opportunity to discuss their favourite topic in a windowless hotel conference room.
To some, this holds all the allure of a hostage situation, but remarkably the day-long event pulled in a crowd of around 800.
‘you couldn’t get enough no activists to fill a phone box,’ exulted one speaker.
Cruel, but probably correct. Still, activists are not the same as voters and no voters seem to believe a shared currency, a powerful devolved parliament and a £9billion fiscal transfer are enough to be going on with.
If the Scottish Government’s policies were making more headway with education, the nHS and public services, perhaps another independence referendum would hold more allure.
‘This is not about being self-congratulatory,’ urged actress elaine C Smith. ‘Let’s hear people’s doubts.’
A sensible exhortation but one that fell on deaf ears.
Instead, they gazed at pie charts, extended begging bowls for websites, held a deluded show of hands against taking any share of UK debt, and made extraordinary claims that women voted no because their husbands told them to.
It was probably a marvellous day out for the faithful but instead of working out how to woo the opposition, they seem to have embarked on an exercise in self-love.