Scottish Independence: Hope and Fear
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Recent polls suggest a growing majority of people in Scotland now favour independence, so what’s behind the change since the 2014 referendum when 55% of voters chose to remain in the Union? How likely is another vote considering Boris Johnson has said it’s not going to happen and what issues are likely to dominate campaigning if it does?
David Aaronovitch asks the experts:
Allan Little reported widely on devolution and the questions around Scottish independence as a BBC special correspondent. Sir John Curtice is a Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, and Chief Commentator on the What UK Thinks Jess Sargeant is a Senior Researcher at The Institute for Government where she focusses on devolution. Lynsey Bews, is a Political Correspondent for BBC Scotland Alistair Grant is a Political Correspondent for The Herald newspaper.
Producers: Kirtseen Knight, Beth Sagar-Fenton and Joe Kent Studio manager: Neva Missirian Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich. |
| 0:03.6 | The briefing room. |
| 0:04.9 | You, me, the top experts, and 28 minutes to get our heads around a big issue. |
| 0:11.2 | This week, is Scotland once more on the road to independence? |
| 0:30.9 | No. The other week, the Prime Minister was photoop, clatching crabs in Stromness Harbour on Orkney as part of what was seen as another of his charm Scotland visits. |
| 0:36.0 | But judging by the polls, the country may take some charming. |
| 0:40.3 | Six years ago, Scotland voted decisively to remain part of the United Kingdom, but recent polls |
| 0:45.6 | suggest a significant shift towards supporting independence, and there are elections to the |
| 0:50.7 | Scottish Parliament next May. So is there a path to another independence referendum? |
| 0:57.7 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:05.5 | 2014, pre-Brexit, pre-virus, seems like a lifetime ago now. |
| 1:11.3 | But we need to go back further still to trace the evolution of Scottish nationalism |
| 1:15.8 | from fringe movement to dominant political force. |
| 1:20.1 | Alan Little has reported on that change on devolution and the referendum itself for the BBC. |
| 1:25.5 | So we asked him to try and help us understand how it all happened. |
| 1:29.9 | I grew up in rural South West Scotland in the 1970s. The house my family lived in was called |
| 1:35.9 | Rhodesia. It had been built at the dawn of the 20th century by two brothers who'd spent their |
| 1:41.4 | working lives in the Colonial Service in Southern Africa and had come |
| 1:45.1 | home to retire. It connected our remote home to some distant, sun-dappled and dreamily exotic place |
| 1:52.2 | on the other side of the world, and we had Britain's global reach to thank for that connection. |
| 1:58.4 | Come with us to the Great Empire Exhibition at Belahouston Park, Glasgow, a noble enterprise |
| 2:03.2 | that presents the empire to the empire and to the world. |
... |
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