‘This is our last and only chance of creating something better’

Robbie Gallacher lives in Blairhall, a former mining village whose fortunes have waned since its colliery closed in the late 1960s. When he left the public meeting in Dunfermline his mind was unchanged by almost two hours of debate.

Gallacher, a Labour Party supporter, voted against Scottish devolution in 1979, but will support independence on September 18th: "I'm a socialist. This is our last chance, our only chance of creating something better," he tells The Irish Times.

On a bright summer’s evening, Gallacher and about 100 others had gathered in Dunfermline’s Carnegie conference centre to hear representatives from the pro-independence “Yes Scotland” and the pro-Union “Better Together” campaigns.

Political meetings

The referendum has brought about a renaissance in political public meetings – a phenomenon that had waned in British society since the 1960s, or later, replaced by television debates, direct mail and, more recently, social media.

Up to now, Yes Scotland has been significantly more skilled than Better Together in putting boots on the ground, listing for example more than 350 events that will take place within 50 miles of Edinburgh between now and polling day.

By contrast, Better Together lists about 175 events, though a significant percentage of those are phone-canvassing sessions held in supporters’ homes, rather than anything that is open to the public at large.

In Dunfermline last week the Courier newspaper held the last of its referendum meetings, bringing together former Labour MP Dennis Canavan and Dunfermline and Fife West MP Thomas Docherty, along with academic John Curtice.

The gathering was, at times, revealing. “Yes Scotland” is happy to have Canavan representing it, since it helps to rebut the perception that the campaign is little more than a front for Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party.

However, Canavan – who was expelled from Labour after the party leadership rejected him in 1999 as a Scottish Parliament candidate, though he went on to win a seat with the highest number of votes – is a man of strong views.

Some of those views – including his support for a Scottish currency, rather than seeking an arrangement with London about the continued use of sterling – are too strong for the middle-ground opinion the SNP so desperately wants to sway.

Freedom

For now, Canavan is happy to go along with the idea of sterling, believing that although an independent Scotland’s borrowing would be constrained, there “would still be an amazing amount of freedom to decide taxes and benefits”.

Docherty was quick to pick up on the reaction of some of the audience to the risk of losing sterling. The loss of the currency is something Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have warned will be an inevitable consequence of a Yes vote.

Contradictions

Academic John Curtice highlights the debate’s contradictions: “Why is the No side telling the Yes that they should have their own currency? Is it because some voters will be so frightened that they will shy away?

"The SNP has made a deliberate calculation: you can keep the same currency; you can watch Eastenders, and everything else.

“The No side is advocating a more radical vision of independence than many on the Yes side,” he tells the audience.

For many in Dunfermline, the future of the Rosyth Naval Dockyard weighs heavily as they decide their vote, which leads Canavan onto a long, rather rambling story about his father’s war-time career working as a shipbuilder.

“Rosyth does have a future, a brighter, different future,” he declares, pointing to the fishery protection vessels and oil and gas rigs that will be needed. “Look at all the redeployment that took place after the war; millions of people were redeployed.”

Here, a significant share of the audience – many of whom clearly agree with him on much else – palpably groaned: “You’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you believe that,” one member of the audience told an unapologetic Canavan.

Weakness

Canavan, however, quickly points to a weakness in the Labour Party’s flank that has been insufficiently exploited: what will be the future of their House of Commons MPs if Scotland votes to split from the Union?

“Supposing there is a Yes vote,” Canavan tells Docherty, “you will still be an MP. Would you be arguing against the wishes of the majority of the people of Scotland, or would you change your tune and say that in the interests of Scotland there must be an agreement about sterling?”

Docherty stops momentarily before replying with a chuckle: “Frankly, Dennis, I would not envisage standing as a candidate in the general election [in May 2015], though I would have to talk to my wife about this.”

Leaving quickly, many in the audience are shy about expressing their views under their own name, though it seems clear that few, if any, had heard anything that had changed their minds, regardless of which way they are leaning.

For one couple – middle-aged, comfortably-off farmers – the referendum has illustrated divisions in Scottish society: “If you have a stake in society you’ll vote against; if not, you’ll vote for it.

“Ten years ago I wasn’t that bothered, but look at the way that things have gone since,” says the husband.