0:00:02 > 0:00:06Have you ever wondered about the big beasts in this referendum debate?
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Alistair Darling,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Alistair Carmichael and Johann Lamont.
0:00:12 > 0:00:13Where did they come from?
0:00:13 > 0:00:16What dark secrets lurk in their past?
0:00:16 > 0:00:18And how did they get to where they are now?
0:00:19 > 0:00:22If you have, then Referendum Connections could be the most
0:00:22 > 0:00:27important show you will watch between now and September 18th.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Well, if they can use outrageous propaganda
0:00:30 > 0:00:32to try and sell their product, why can't we?
0:00:39 > 0:00:42If you go to Holyrood, everybody knows everybody.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45They maybe don't get on, they're maybe no' the best of pals
0:00:45 > 0:00:46but everybody knows everybody.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49And not only that, everybody knows everybody's business,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52and everybody knows where everybody else has come from
0:00:52 > 0:00:54and who they've stood on to get there.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59People look at the Labour Party and they say, "Humbug and hypocrisy."
0:00:59 > 0:01:02He's a great risk taker.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05He's been gambling on horses since he's been about ten.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08What are the risks, what are the costs and, ultimately,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11what is the justification for such division and upheaval?
0:01:11 > 0:01:14I remember Alistair Darling at parties in the 1980s
0:01:14 > 0:01:16with his leather bomber jacket on,
0:01:16 > 0:01:18trying to look a bit like Che Guevara.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21That memo obviously didn't get to Johann Lamont.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24It sounds as if she's even more out of the loop
0:01:24 > 0:01:27in her own party than we thought.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29I would say she is probably the most
0:01:29 > 0:01:32effective politician in Britain today, bar none.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37A Scottish government minister was on the phone to his employers
0:01:37 > 0:01:40saying he should be silenced. That is deplorable.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44He's an extremely funny man. He's serious about his politics,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47he's serious about his friends and he jokes about everything.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50What do you not understand?
0:01:50 > 0:01:54My first meeting with Johann was more like an exocet entering the room.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58What does the First Minister not understand about his proposal
0:01:58 > 0:02:02to take Scotland out of the United Kingdom?
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Over the last year, they've become a feature in our lives,
0:02:06 > 0:02:08so we thought we'd find out some more about them
0:02:08 > 0:02:11and perhaps even help you make up your mind come September.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15So much for the quality debate of Johann Lamont!
0:02:15 > 0:02:19And where better to start than with the cheerleader-in-chief
0:02:19 > 0:02:20of Scottish independence,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23First Minister and leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond
0:02:28 > 0:02:32was born in Linlithgow on Hogmanay, 1954.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34A talented boy soprano, I kid you not,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37he starred in Amahl and the Night Visitors,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39playing a child who tells tall tales.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Hmm, that's interesting!
0:02:41 > 0:02:45And he was described as a fine, wee singer by no less an authority
0:02:45 > 0:02:48than the Falkirk Heralds opera critic.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54In 1974, this aspiring Pavarotti left Linlithgow to cut his
0:02:54 > 0:02:58political teeth and lower his golf handicap at St Andrew's University.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Where he crossed swords with political heavyweights
0:03:01 > 0:03:02Michael - now Lord - Forsyth,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Michael Fallon, the UK's Energy Minister,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07and Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Also witness to the activities of the student prince
0:03:10 > 0:03:15at St Andrews was the editor of the university newspaper, Brian Taylor.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22Alex Salmond at university was always advancing the cause of independence.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25The guy had two characteristics.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28First of all, deadly serious about politics.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31But also motivated by mischief.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34It's not bluff, it's fact and you should realise the difference.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39You can see that in his student days. Frankly, you can still see it today.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Apart from a degree, an SNP membership card
0:03:42 > 0:03:46and a love of the gee-gees, St Andrews also gave the aspiring
0:03:46 > 0:03:48First Minister a unique experience.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Electoral defeat.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53In the race for the presidency of the SRC,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58just 11 votes separated Salmond from his Tory opponent, Peter Bainbridge.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00I think it scarred him for life.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02He never quite recovered from that.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06Wounded, he temporarily rejected that deceitful mistress,
0:04:06 > 0:04:11politics, for the more ethical and virtuous world of banking,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13becoming chief oil economist at RBS.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15But he couldn't stay away forever.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18He was a talented individual, had a great career ahead of him as an
0:04:18 > 0:04:23economist if he'd wanted it, and here he was hitching himself to the SNP.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26There was something steely, something determined,
0:04:26 > 0:04:28an ambition there, a drive there.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Almost like a challenge, he was challenging himself.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34That love other challenge is something
0:04:34 > 0:04:38he shares with the man charged with making the case for the union
0:04:38 > 0:04:41and convincing us that we are in fact Better Together.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Former Chancellor and Labour MP Alistair Darling.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47But he wasn't the union's most willing volunteer.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Thank you very much. I'm not used to that.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52LAUGHTER
0:04:52 > 0:04:55I remember being with Alistair in Pitlochry one night.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58He'd been through the whole banking debacle and he was tired
0:04:58 > 0:05:03and fed up with all these things and was looking forward to a rest.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06I said, "Well, if you want to make a case for the union,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10"you're going to have to lead it because who else is there?"
0:05:10 > 0:05:13And he was definitely not for doing that at that point.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15We are Better Together.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18He may have the credibility
0:05:18 > 0:05:21but he does have a reputation for being a teeny-weeny bit dull.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25That wasn't always the case.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Comrades, Alistair Darling, Edinburgh North CLP.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30I remember Alistair Darling at left-wing parties in the 1980s
0:05:30 > 0:05:32with his leather bomber jacket on,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36trying to look a bit like Che Guevara.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Long before he popped up as the poster boy for the union,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43our Alistair had already enjoy the colourful political history.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46The great nephew of Sir William Darling,
0:05:46 > 0:05:50a wartime provost of Edinburgh and a Unionist MP, Alistair was
0:05:50 > 0:05:53educated at Loretto, one of Scotland's top private schools.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55Where, as a first year, it's reported
0:05:55 > 0:05:59he was the personal servant, or fag, for senior pupil who
0:05:59 > 0:06:03turned out to be none other than ex-Chancellor Norman Lamont.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07After school he headed to the Granite City to study law,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11becoming president of Aberdeen University SRC.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14And no doubt to the horror of Great Uncle William was rumoured to
0:06:14 > 0:06:17be a supporter of the International Marxist group.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Surely not!
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Anyway, four years later Alistair left Aberdeen
0:06:22 > 0:06:26and his Trotskyist politics behind and headed home to Edinburgh,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29where he secured a seat on Lothian Regional Council.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35Essentially his politics were always very, very straight.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40He flirted with the Labour left I think in order to get on.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43But he's always been a pragmatist in my view.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46He's always been someone who quite rightly tried to do the job
0:06:46 > 0:06:48and get things done.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50People had a high regard for him them.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53He always looked older than he was, which is quite an advantage
0:06:53 > 0:06:54in a young politician.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Belonging to the same political party as Alistair Darling
0:06:58 > 0:07:01but inhabiting a completely different world
0:07:01 > 0:07:04from the privately educated Edinburgh councillor was
0:07:04 > 0:07:08a young, working-class Glasgow activist, Johann Lamont.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10You're in danger of bringing out the school teacher in me
0:07:10 > 0:07:13again to get you to sit down and be quiet.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16I didn't realise that there were these viragos,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21these women committed to liberal politics, to human rights,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24civil rights, women's rights that would come in
0:07:24 > 0:07:26and blast you out of the room.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Johann was so fearsome and so committed at that that
0:07:29 > 0:07:33when she stood up at a constituency meeting and said
0:07:33 > 0:07:39anything about anything, no-one who followed her dared disagree.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Born to Gaelic-speaking parents from Tiree in July 1957,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Johann McDougall Lamont grew up
0:07:46 > 0:07:48in the tough Anderson district of Glasgow.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52She attended Woodside Secondary before studying English
0:07:52 > 0:07:55and immersing herself in the Glasgow University Labour Club.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59A club with a long tradition of producing party notables,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02including John Smith, Donald Dewar and Wendy Alexander.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07At university she met and formed a lifelong political
0:08:07 > 0:08:10and personal friendship with Margaret Curran,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
0:08:13 > 0:08:19Johann was very much a leading figure of the biggest university
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Labour club in Scotland.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24You have to remember this was the mid-to-late '70s
0:08:24 > 0:08:28and that was a time of super activism in the Labour Party.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31There were millions and millions of things going on.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33Johann was very much a super activist.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37On a Friday at lunchtime there would be a gigantic lunchtime meeting
0:08:37 > 0:08:40where major, major speakers from the party,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Neil Kinnock, Michael Foot, Denis Healey, John Smith
0:08:43 > 0:08:47would come and address people in the Queen Margaret Union.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50No doubt many of those guest speakers discussed
0:08:50 > 0:08:52the burning issue of the day.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54Labour's Scottish devolution bill,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58which was then inching its way through Westminster.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02Although it was Labour's Bill, not everyone was on board with the idea.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Whisper it.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Neither Johann Lamont nor Alistair Darling
0:09:06 > 0:09:09were what you would call enthusiastic supporters
0:09:09 > 0:09:11of devolution back in the day.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Maybe they'd have been a bit more receptive to the idea
0:09:14 > 0:09:16if only they had known what was coming.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20Just weeks after Scotland said a big "aye maybe" to an assembly,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24but with insufficient fervour to actually get it.
0:09:24 > 0:09:30Like a whirlwind in May 1979, Maggie Thatcher arrived at Downing Street
0:09:30 > 0:09:33leaving her political opposition looking a bit behind the times.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38ALL SING TOGETHER
0:09:38 > 0:09:42The Tories were in and nothing would be the same again.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47To oppose Maggie, Labour lurched to the left.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51A radical young Darling, sporting a rather natty, unkempt look,
0:09:51 > 0:09:52made an impassioned
0:09:52 > 0:09:56if somewhat doom-laden address to the party's 1981 conference.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00They don't tell you that the Army is going to impose
0:10:00 > 0:10:01a curfew on the country.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04That phones will be cut off, they'll be roadblocks and that CS gas
0:10:04 > 0:10:07canisters have already been issued to the Army for the control
0:10:07 > 0:10:10of the population, when they find out what's going to happen to them.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13There'll be riots, raping, food shortages,
0:10:13 > 0:10:15people friends will be set against each other
0:10:15 > 0:10:17over the last can of food that they can find.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22It wasn't the constitution that triggered young Alistair's angst
0:10:22 > 0:10:26back in 1981, it was Mrs Thatcher's civil defence plans.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29But it was her offence plans that exercised the normally
0:10:29 > 0:10:32laid-back Alex Salmond.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36We face a Tory Government with less than a third of Scottish MPs,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39less than a quarter of the Scottish electorate behind them at the last election.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42One recent opinion poll put it as low as 12%.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45It's a government of occupation we face in Scotland,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49just as surely as if they had an army at their backs.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51And when you think about it, perhaps they have.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56To fight against Thatcher, he helped set up the 79 Group,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00whose aims included a Scottish Socialist Republic.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Leading lights included Salmond, Jim Sillars, Margo MacDonald,
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Roseanna Cunningham and Kenny MacAskill.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12But this new group very soon found themselves on a collision course
0:11:12 > 0:11:15with the more traditionalist SNP leadership.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18'In that very unhappy period, I think
0:11:18 > 0:11:22'it was inevitable that there would be a sense amongst the other'
0:11:22 > 0:11:25party members, particularly the leadership, that these
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Young Turks needed to be put in their place.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31I am now convinced that the party will not recover its unity
0:11:31 > 0:11:34until all organised groups are banned.
0:11:34 > 0:11:35APPLAUSE
0:11:35 > 0:11:40And put in their place they were when, at the 1982 conference,
0:11:40 > 0:11:42things came to a rather ugly head
0:11:42 > 0:11:46when the SNP banned all internal groups,
0:11:46 > 0:11:50a move that eventually led to the expulsion of Alex Salmond from the party.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55It was defections rather than expulsions that were hurting
0:11:55 > 0:11:58the Labour Party when four leading lights left to form the SDP.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03And joining this new venture was a community activist on Islay,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Mina Carmichael, mother of a future Scottish Secretary.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11His mother, I think, didn't start as a Liberal,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13but by the time Alistair was in his early teens,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17she'd have been very active in the Liberal Party in Islay.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20I'm told that there would not have been a family meal that went by
0:12:20 > 0:12:25without a robust discussion of what was in the news at that time.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28And I have no doubt that his mother inculcated
0:12:28 > 0:12:30a sense of liberalism in him.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35Born in July, 1965, on the family's farm on Islay,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40Alexander Morrison Carmichael isn't the first political heavyweight to come from the island.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45George - now Baron - Robertson of Port Ellen, and Glenn Campbell...
0:12:45 > 0:12:48No, not him, the other one! Yes, him, the one from the BBC.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50..they're also sons of Islay.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54By the early 1980s, young Alistair had left the farm
0:12:54 > 0:12:58for Glasgow University, where he played a leading role in the SRC
0:12:58 > 0:13:02and became president of the university's Liberal Club.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05These were heady days for young liberals on campus.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Roy Jenkins had just been elected MP for Hillhead,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11the seat that took in Alistair's university.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16'He had a rare old time to himself at Glasgow University.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21'The political life of Glasgow... In Glasgow, debating fused in him.'
0:13:21 > 0:13:24He had a fabulous two years at Glasgow University.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26Maybe not academically, but otherwise.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32By 1984, Carmichael's ability to address a half-empty conference hall
0:13:32 > 0:13:36was marking him out to the Scottish Liberal leadership as one to watch.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40I think this motion shows us how we as liberals can start to use
0:13:40 > 0:13:44local government as effectively as possible in the process
0:13:44 > 0:13:47of repopulation of Highland and rural areas.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50And I commend it to you well worthy of our support as liberals.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53- Thank you very much. - APPLAUSE
0:13:53 > 0:13:58Among Scotland's endangered species in the 1980s was the lesser-spotted Conservative politician.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03In a game attempt to reverse the eventual extinction of the breed,
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Mrs Thatcher would occasionally venture to her northern outpost.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13Scotland's response was to vote Labour in ever-increasing numbers,
0:14:13 > 0:14:17even in the Tory heartland of Central Edinburgh.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20I remember there was a lot of effort going into winning it,
0:14:20 > 0:14:25but by no means was it a safe seat or clear we were going to take it.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30'Even then, Alistair Darling knew how to talk to the "Edin-bourgeoisie".'
0:14:30 > 0:14:31Alistair Maclean Darling...
0:14:31 > 0:14:36In fact, for three of our big beasts, 1987 was their first foray
0:14:36 > 0:14:39into national politics, with Alistair Darling's victory being
0:14:39 > 0:14:42a welcome surprise for the SNP's parliamentary leader,
0:14:42 > 0:14:43Margaret Ewing.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46- Labour... Fletcher's out. - Fletcher's out!
0:14:47 > 0:14:51With this kind of swing to Labour, there was never going to be a seat
0:14:51 > 0:14:54on the overnight train to London for the plucky young Lib Dem
0:14:54 > 0:14:57fighting the solid seat of Paisley South.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02But there was a seat on the train south reserved for another first-time candidate -
0:15:02 > 0:15:06Alex Salmond, who headed to Westminster with a mission.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09What sort of disruptive tactics will you adopt in Scotland
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and in Westminster, do you think, in the coming session?
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Well, we've got a plan of action for how Scotland could oppose
0:15:15 > 0:15:18the Tories effectively and not the powder puff opposition
0:15:18 > 0:15:20we've had from the Labour Party over the last eight years.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23- ..Will both be at their lowest level...- True to his word,
0:15:23 > 0:15:27during the following year's Budget speech, all hell broke loose.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29..Remains in place.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31POLITICIANS DISAGREE RAUCOUSLY
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Then, the Budget was treated with absolute sanctity
0:15:34 > 0:15:36and they sat and listened in silence.
0:15:36 > 0:15:37Order!
0:15:37 > 0:15:39Alex Salmond disrupted it and disrupted it
0:15:39 > 0:15:42and disrupted it again until he was kicked out.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46I beg to move that Mr Salmond be suspended from the service of the House.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48His party leadership went along with it,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51but his parliamentary leader at the time, Margaret Ewing,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54was tugging at his arm, saying, "You've done it, now sit down."
0:15:54 > 0:15:57But he was determined to carry this through.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Oh, he'd done it all right, and in the process, he went from being
0:16:01 > 0:16:05a relative unknown to a household name overnight.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Which of course is exactly what he wanted. Very astute thing to do.
0:16:09 > 0:16:15But that was Alex Salmond, he was an opportunist of considerable talent.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Salmond was becoming the darling...
0:16:18 > 0:16:21No, let's say blue-eyed, er, brown-eyed...
0:16:21 > 0:16:23Och, you know what I mean! ..boy of the SNP.
0:16:25 > 0:16:26But had he pushed his luck too far
0:16:26 > 0:16:30when ran for leader against Margaret Ewing in 1990?
0:16:30 > 0:16:34'Here he was taking on SNP aristocracy,'
0:16:34 > 0:16:39and that's a dangerous thing, because if you lose,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41you've gained nothing except a lot of enemies.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46In what was expected to be a close fight, the underdog, Salmond,
0:16:46 > 0:16:51secured the overwhelming backing of the party's youth and student wing.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Round about that time, you had a generational change
0:16:54 > 0:16:56in Scottish politics.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01'You had this group who have now become the golden age of the SNP.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04'I think they were kind of starting to come to the fore then
0:17:04 > 0:17:08'and they wanted something different from what the SNP had been.'
0:17:08 > 0:17:11They wanted it to be a new, dynamic and interesting party,
0:17:11 > 0:17:13and they knew they weren't going to get there
0:17:13 > 0:17:16unless they got someone who they felt was a bit like that themselves.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Alex Salmond MP, 486...
0:17:19 > 0:17:21CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:17:21 > 0:17:23With the backing of the young team,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26Salmond's margin of victory was bigger than anyone could have
0:17:26 > 0:17:29imagined and doubtless instilled in him the belief that winning,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33even against the heaviest odds, is possible in politics.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38In that campaign, another of our connections was made.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40One of Salmond's most enthusiastic supporters was
0:17:40 > 0:17:43the secretary of the Young Nationalists,
0:17:43 > 0:17:45a 20-year-old Nicola Sturgeon.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49I think he saw a very sharp political intelligence,
0:17:49 > 0:17:51a great deal of self-discipline,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54in as much as she's always in control.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57She has a certain spontaneity about her,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00but she never misses a beat.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05I would say that she is probably the most effective politician
0:18:05 > 0:18:07in Britain today, bar none. I mean, I really...
0:18:07 > 0:18:10That's high praise, but I think she's just exceptional.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Nicola Sturgeon was born in Irvine, North Ayrshire, in 1970.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18She grew up during the SNP's heyday.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23The party even captured her local council ward in 1976.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26So, by the time she left Irvine to study law at Glasgow University,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29she was already a committed nationalist.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34In 1990, she was part of the young team that backed Salmond
0:18:34 > 0:18:36along with her now Holyrood colleagues
0:18:36 > 0:18:42Shona Robison, Angela Constance, Richard Lochhead and Alasdair Allan,
0:18:42 > 0:18:46as well as MPs Stewart Hosie, Angus Robertson and Eilidh Whiteford.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49And in return for all their help, Alex Salmond
0:18:49 > 0:18:53rebuilt his party around them, particularly Nicola Sturgeon.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59'What became very, very clear was'
0:18:59 > 0:19:01that this young woman was a class apart.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06She was remarkably talented, she was incredibly effective in the media.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09I am campaigning in favour of this girl, Nicola Sturgeon.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Do you know her? That's Nicola Sturgeon. This is the one here.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16So it was kind of inevitable that she would be THE key figure that he
0:19:16 > 0:19:19would want to encourage and almost adopt.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23It's the kind of ambitious, transformational, life-changing
0:19:23 > 0:19:26policy that independence gives us the ability to do.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29And if the opposition would raise their sights and their ambition,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32they might find it within themselves to support it.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36Interestingly for our story, while at university,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Sturgeon was a constituent of Jim Sillars' in Govan which,
0:19:39 > 0:19:44by 1992, had become Labour's number one target seat.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48So the party asked Johann Lamont to mastermind their campaign to
0:19:48 > 0:19:52turn local councillor Ian Davidson into the local MP.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54I think he turned to Johann for a number of reasons.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56First of all, she was at that time
0:19:56 > 0:20:00from exactly the same part of the party as he was -
0:20:00 > 0:20:05'very left wing and radical, and they could work comfortably together.'
0:20:05 > 0:20:08She had also proved herself by that time as an excellent organiser.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11'She had been on the Scottish Executive
0:20:11 > 0:20:13'and she knew how to handle big events like that.'
0:20:13 > 0:20:18Pull the various strands of a campaign together.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Skills no doubt honed while working as an English teacher in Glasgow
0:20:22 > 0:20:26and serving on Labour's Executive in the 1980s.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Sexism is not the exclusive province of one political party,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32and the different standards operating for women in politics
0:20:32 > 0:20:34know no political boundaries.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Her love of both politics and teaching came in handy
0:20:38 > 0:20:41for this performance in a 1987 party political broadcast.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44I think it should be remembered that one of the reasons we can point to
0:20:44 > 0:20:48deficiencies within the state system is simply because this government
0:20:48 > 0:20:51is not and never has been committed to a public sector of education.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53After a performance like that,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57how could she fail to become chair of the Scottish party in '93
0:20:57 > 0:21:00and Labour delegate to the Scottish Constitutional Convention?
0:21:00 > 0:21:03She had previously regarded constitutional politics
0:21:03 > 0:21:07as a completely unwarranted diversion from the politics
0:21:07 > 0:21:09of class and gender and poverty.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13She came to believe that you could use the constitutional model
0:21:13 > 0:21:16of a devolved Scotland to advocate those causes.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22By the 1997 general election, Scottish devolution had become
0:21:22 > 0:21:25a main plank of Labour's manifesto.
0:21:25 > 0:21:31Devolution is a way of modernising the UK for today's world.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36In Tony Blair's general election landslide, Alistair Darling
0:21:36 > 0:21:40was returned in Edinburgh and Alex Salmond in Banff and Buchan.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44But Nicola Sturgeon lost out to Mohammad Sarwar in Govan,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47where Johann Lamont's bestest buddy, Margaret Curran,
0:21:47 > 0:21:48was his election agent.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52Within months, Scotland went to the polls again,
0:21:52 > 0:21:57this time to say either "Yes, Yes," "No, No," "Yes, No," or conceivably
0:21:57 > 0:22:00even "No, Yes" in a two-question referendum
0:22:00 > 0:22:03to establish a Scottish Parliament.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06At precisely 3:37 this morning, confirmation came
0:22:06 > 0:22:10that the yes campaigners for a parliament were home and dry.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14In the elections to that new parliament,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17it was Labour who emerged as the big winners.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20Johann Lamont saw off a determined attempt by local hero
0:22:20 > 0:22:23Tommy Sheridan to win in Glasgow Pollock.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Fortunately we had a candidate who could give as good as she got.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33It was a great selection to put her in there.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Other people would have lost that election to Sheridan
0:22:36 > 0:22:38because of the power of his personality.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40But she was able to match that.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44At the new parliament she joined her best friend and old Glasgow
0:22:44 > 0:22:47university comrade Margaret Curran.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51As another Glasgow old boy, Donald Dewar, set up a coalition government
0:22:51 > 0:22:53with the Lib Dem leader Jim Wallace.
0:22:55 > 0:22:56Also heading to parliament
0:22:56 > 0:22:59were the biggest number of SNP-elected politicians
0:22:59 > 0:23:00in the party's history.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04In the election to that first Scottish Parliament,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Alex Salmond was reunited with his old '79 group colleagues
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Kenny MacAskill, Roseanna Cunnigham and Margo MacDonald.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13While Nicola Sturgeon hooked up with
0:23:13 > 0:23:17all her chums from the now all-growed-up SNP youth wing,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20including Fiona Hyslop, Shona Robison and Richard Lochhead.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26On becoming the brand-new Deputy First Minister,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Lib Dem leader Jim Wallace decided he would not seek re-election
0:23:29 > 0:23:32as the Westminster MP for Orkney and Shetland.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35So to replace him, the local party in the Northern Isles
0:23:35 > 0:23:39turned to a boy from the Western Isles, Alistair Carmichael.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43He's recognised as somebody who just works hard.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46He's the guy who goes out with leaflets in the pouring rain.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Well, maybe a bit less nowadays.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51But he certainly was. You don't have a campaign manager?
0:23:51 > 0:23:53Alistair will be your campaign manager.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56You need a leaflet in the middle of the night? Alistair will do it.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59He is extremely highly regarded.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02I've been given this job.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05It's probably the most important job in politics for the next 12 months,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07and I'm absolutely relishing it.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Alistair Carmichael is quite a rare thing,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12not just in Scottish politics but in politics generally.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17Alistair Carmichael is a real person who happens to be an MP,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20and a senior MP, a Cabinet Minister at UK level, for all that.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Perhaps it was the potent mix of union debates
0:24:25 > 0:24:28and local party politics, but for whatever reason,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31Alistair didn't complete his course at Glasgow
0:24:31 > 0:24:35and went to work as manager at the Ewington Hotel in the city.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38But in 1988 he returned to academia, and again involved himself
0:24:38 > 0:24:41in student politics, at Aberdeen University.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45This time he did graduate,
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and armed with a law degree, he practised as a solicitor
0:24:48 > 0:24:51under the watchful eye of Eilidh Whiteford's dad.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55It was while working as a solicitor he was selected to defend
0:24:55 > 0:24:58the safe seat of Orkney and Shetland in the 2001 General Election
0:24:58 > 0:25:00when Jim Wallace stood down.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04This time there was a seat on the train heading south
0:25:04 > 0:25:07alongside his soon-to-be Better Together pal Alistair,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10who'd been re-elected once again in Edinburgh.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13So by 2001, all of main players had been elected
0:25:13 > 0:25:16either to Holyrood or to Westminster,
0:25:16 > 0:25:19or in the case of Alex Salmond, both.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Since then, they've all clambered to the summit,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29or as near as makes no difference in their various parties.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32As Chancellor in the last Labour government, Alistair Darling gained
0:25:32 > 0:25:37a reputation for being a reliable, solid, bank-managery type of guy.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39Perfect chap to defend the status quo.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42I think what Better Together have needed throughout,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45which is why they've got Alistair Darling,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47why he's been the best appointment for that job,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50is they've needed to prove the stability
0:25:50 > 0:25:54that Scotland has from within the UK, and he is that kind of figure.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57You know, he just looks like a safe, secure pair of hands.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Because he is.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Last year, Alistair Carmichael was welcomed to his job as Scottish
0:26:03 > 0:26:08secretary with longest handshake in the history of British politics.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11And this relatively unknown Highlander
0:26:11 > 0:26:15is already the subject of a press corps gag.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17When Alistair Carmichael was first elected an MP
0:26:17 > 0:26:20in 2001 for Orkney and Shetland,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23he went down to Westminster, and he was staying in a hotel
0:26:23 > 0:26:26for the first few weeks that he was there before he found a flat.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30And in the hotel bar, he was being chatted up by a young woman,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33and he thought, this must be because I'm an MP.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36I'm powerful these days. It must be attractive to women.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40And halfway through the night, after a couple of drinks, she said,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43"You do know that I'm a call girl?"
0:26:43 > 0:26:45And he said, "A Coll girl?"
0:26:45 > 0:26:47"I would never have guessed from your accent."
0:26:47 > 0:26:50"I'm an Islay man myself."
0:26:50 > 0:26:52Hey, come on! I didn't promise it was a good joke.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Since 2007, Nicola Sturgeon has been Scotland's Deputy First Minister,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02and she's widely tipped to replace her boss as the SNP leader
0:27:02 > 0:27:05if and when he ever hangs up his boots.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07She is someone who is deeply respected
0:27:07 > 0:27:09by all who come into contact with her.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13She's someone who's truly on top of the detail of her brief.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17But she's also got that charisma, that ability to speak
0:27:17 > 0:27:20to a broader audience that very few politicians have.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25After the 2011 election, as one the few senior
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Labour members left at Holyrood,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Johann Lamont assumed the role of leader,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31and since then has surprised quite a few,
0:27:31 > 0:27:33even among her own supporters.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36I think she has kind of grown into the job.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39I think people increasingly know who she is,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41which is a not unimportant thing.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45In that 2011 election, Alex Salmond's SNP
0:27:45 > 0:27:49broke the system by securing an overall majority
0:27:49 > 0:27:54in a parliament everyone believed would produce coalition government,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56thereby setting in course the events
0:27:56 > 0:27:59that have taken us to this referendum.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01We've been told for 300 years
0:28:01 > 0:28:04that we mustn't be independent, that we must remain in this union
0:28:04 > 0:28:06which is critical and crucial
0:28:06 > 0:28:09and indispensable to the future of Scotland.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11And here is one individual saying,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14"No, it's not. We can do better on our own."
0:28:15 > 0:28:19If we choose to do it his way, he's got a place in history
0:28:19 > 0:28:22alongside the great heroes of Scotland.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24He'd love that, wouldn't he?
0:28:24 > 0:28:25But it's true.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28So there you have it.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31That's the overlapping and interconnecting world
0:28:31 > 0:28:33of the five major Scottish politicians
0:28:33 > 0:28:37who have been and will continue to try to persuade you
0:28:37 > 0:28:39that their vision of Scotland's future is the one
0:28:39 > 0:28:43that deserves your support on September the 18th.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Good luck with that!