It will be the most important televised
clash in British history. On Tuesday night, Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling
will debate Scottish independence.
With only six weeks to go to the
referendum, more than a million Scots are expected to tune in. Salmond has two
hours to revive the flagging case for Scottish independence – and Darling two
hours to secure the Union.
Salmond has been preparing intensively for this debate. The word is that
he is relying on a lifestyle coach to help make sure he sounds sufficiently
upbeat.
As one of his opponents observes: ‘If
shouty Salmond turns up, he’ll turn off women.’
Darling is under a different kind of
pressure. One big slip and he puts the entire Union in jeopardy. He will spend
this weekend conducting mock debates against people playing Alex Salmond.
His team feels that after two years of
public meetings and interviews on independence, he knows what he wants to say
and how he wants to say it.
But this hasn’t stopped nervousness in
London about how Darling will perform. Some Cabinet Ministers are fretting that
Darling isn’t Scottish enough.
This might seem a bizarre thing to say
about someone who went to school and university in Scotland and sits for
Edinburgh South West in the House of Commons.
But in Salmond’s world, Westminster is
a foreign country.
‘Salmond will play dirty,’ warns one Cabinet Minister. ‘He won’t
hesitate to try to portray Alistair as an English lackey.’
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