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This is a global player original podcast. We lost the referendum vote, but Scotland can still carry

the political initiative. Scotland can still emerge as the real winner. For me as a as leader,

my time is nearly over. But for Scotland, the campaign continues and the dream shall never die.

That was the late Alex Salmond. The day after Scotland voted no to independence on the 19th of

September 2014, a decade ago. And the question is, why are we playing you, Alex Salmond, making a

speech about Scotland staying within the United Kingdom today. Well, it's because we're

starting a brand new series here, gently, what if it's counterfactual history, which allows us

and you to just indulge the question of what might have been. What if Scotland had voted yes?

Welcome to the newsagents.

The newsagents. It's John. It's Emily. It's Lewis.

And we've got a whole series, a hamper, because it's near Christmas, a hamper

full of what ifs that we're going to bring you over the coming days. But the question of Scotland

is such a fascinating one, because, well, if they had, would it be part of the European Union now?

Would Britain have relocated its nuclear submarine bases? Would the king be the king of

Scotland as well? These are the big questions that hung over. So it's just worth reminding you what

happened in 2014 and the events in the run up to it. Because of course, the reason there was a

referendum in September 2014 is because David Cameron,

who was the Prime Minister in 2011, agreed to it. And he agreed to it because in the

Hollywood elections of 2011, the SMP, Scottish National Party, did something that everyone

thought was impossible. Indeed, the system was designed to be impossible, which was to achieve an outright

majority in the Scottish Parliament, which has a largely, although not exclusively, proportional

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