A VETERAN SNP MP is hopeful his new book accounting for the ups and downs of the 2014 independence referendum can help campaigners recapture the “galvanising” energy of the Yes movement 10 years on.
Pete Wishart, the MP for Perth and Kinross-shire, said Inside The Indyref details the evolution of the campaign and how over time it impacted “every sector of society in Scotland” to the point where, in his view, there can no be no return to how Scottish politics was prior to the posing of the constitutional question.
The book consolidates Wishart’s diary entries from midway through 2014 right up until the day after the No result, covering emotions around major interventions from the UK Government such as The Vow, as well as the “depression” that followed the first TV debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling, which polls suggested the latter comprehensively won.
But while there are many disappointments Wishart covers, he hopes the book will allow people to look back on the “hugely impressive” Yes campaign that saw people who had never thought about politics begin to seriously ponder the future of their country.
Wishart told the Sunday National: “I've always kept diaries, not just of political life, but also the time when I was in music, and sometimes there just a few notes per day, sometimes they were quite lengthy entries, but when we got to the independence referendum, it just seemed so much bigger than anything we'd ever experienced or dealt with and what I was finding was I was consistently putting bigger entries in just because there was so much more to report and record.
“I found it really cathartic and helpful to assess what was happening.
“I’ve tried to capture the ups and downs. There were periods where I felt we were doing really well and we felt we might be onto something. Then there’s other parts where I thought things weren’t going so well and I try to be even-handed.”
Asked what he looked back on with pride and happiness, Wishart said it was the way in which the Yes campaign spread to all corners of the country and the contagious optimism it had at its heart.
“It was a really galvanising and totally immersive experience being involved in the Yes campaign,” he said.
“We made lots of good friends and allies - people who had never been involved in politics before really started to think about their country, what type of future they wanted.
“It was the evolution of this huge campaign and the way it impacted every sector of society in Scotland that I think was hugely impressive.
“I hope that when people read the book they'll reflect back just upon the optimism, the energy, the sheer sense of a campaign going somewhere.”
However, Wishart said the book details some major low points for the movement, including when then-chancellor George Osborne ruled out a currency union between Scotland and England in the event of independence and what became known as The Vow – a joint statement by then-prime minister David Cameron, ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband and ex-LibDem leader Nick Clegg promising more powers for Scotland in the event of a No vote.
“These were huge interventions, particularly when it came to The Vow, which was probably the last big play during the referendum. We knew that was really significant.
“It was very much a low and the other one was the debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling.
“Everyone in the Yes campaign was so looking forward to this, it was just a matter of what sort of soggy mess Alistair Darling was going to be left in after debating Alex.
“It didn’t work out like that. Alistair Darling comprehensively won that evening and that was reflected in the opinion polls that followed. I remember the huge depression which lasted for about five days thinking that we’d just about blown it.
“There was lots of disappointment and excitement and I want to take people back and equate people with all the big issues and how they all played out and the impact they had on the respective campaigns.”
Wishart also recalls events such as the time he was involved in a BBC debate at the independent Strathallan School in Perthshire, which he said involved a student audience of “all No supporters, bar three”.
Abusive tweets were fired at Wishart in the aftermath which led to the school apologising for the “inappropriate” comments of some pupils.
“These were the sort of things that we were getting caught up in, we were going along to all these events and we were finding some quite unusual circumstances that we were presented with,” he said.
Despite the loss of the referendum, the SNP still enjoyed an unprecedented landslide victory in the General Election the following year, with the party winning all but three seats in Scotland.
But fast forward to today, the SNP now have just nine MPs at Westminster after a tumultuous period involving the resignation of two leaders in the space of a little more than a year, as well as a long-running investigation into the party’s finances.
Wishart said the 10-year anniversary of the referendum offers a great opportunity to look back on what was achieved and reflect on how to move forward at a challenging time for the independence movement.
He said: “It’s going to be hard work [reviving the campaign]. This is the one thing I think we're all starting to acknowledge now that there is no easy solution.
“If anybody tries to pretend they've got a panacea for a way forward, do not believe them. This is going to take hard consideration and I think we're all going to have to pull together to try and ensure that we get some sort of way forward.
“The one thing I hope happens in the next few weeks and months is that we can at last start to put together that convention which brings all the different interests in the independence campaign together. I think that’s the thing that’s highly required.
I think we’re all trying to search for that way forward and we have to remember that the independence referendum came from nothing. There was the SNP victory in 2011, but we were about 15 points behind at the beginning of April back in 2011 ahead of the election that allowed us to have this referendum.
“Things can change really quickly and I really hope that if this book could do anything, it could maybe try to recapture some of that energy that was in abundance back in 2013 and 2014, which seems to be significantly lacking just now.”
Inside the Indyref is set to be released on September 12 by Luath Press.
