Scotland's Decision Panorama

We are a few days away from the people of Scotland taking control of

the future of our own country. I want to know what Plan B is. So do

you. In three days' time, Scotland will

decide whether or not it wants to be an independent nation.

Don't listen to the lies and scaremongering of the SNP.

A generation ago, independence was a fringe obsession. Today, it is a

mainstream ambition. What the Scottish people value is under

threat if we don't vote yes. Scotland is on the cusp of making

history. The eyes of the world are upon Scotland. It has shaken the

British political establishment to its roots. Why has it happened? I

will be heart broken if this family of nations was torn apart.

My name is Allan Little. I have worked for the BBC for more

than 30 years. I have reported from all over the

world. Refugees have been flooding here

since the fighting began. 50,000 so far... Allan Little, BBC News.

But Scotland has always been the place I have called home.

This is the village in Galloway, in rural south-west Scotland, where I

grew up. I was born here in 1959. I left when I was 18 and I have not

been back to the house I grew up in since.

I have come to meet Peter Ross, the current owner.

Hello, Peter. Hello. Nice to meet you.

Can I look around? Of course, please. Our old house was built

around 1900 by two Scottish brothers who spent most of their lives in the

British colonies in Africa. They gave the house a name, which to me

carried the exotic stamp of empire. It celebrated our remote little

village's connection with power around the world. What struck me,

even in the 70s, is Scotland felt connected to the empire, rather than

to Europe. Yes. Absolutely. There are all these linages going --

linkages going backwards and forwards. To my grandparents'

generation, the empire bound Scotland to a powerful British

identity. The empire which the sun never set is long gone. Can it be

true that the sun may also set on the union between England and

Scotland? Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the political

landscape e here and across Britain, will never be the same again. So,

how in the last 40 years did we get to where we are today? Well, in

1974, if you had said in 2014 there will be a referendum, so close that

Scotland might become independent, people would have recoiled in

disbelief. For much of the 20th century,

Scotland's shared sense of Britishness was powerful.

An identity most in Scotland didn't even think about challenging.

Britain is an island nation. On the shores, generations of craftsmen

have made great ships for the world, but nowhere in such profusion as on

the River Clyde, in Scotland. Drive along the Clyde nowadays and

you see that only the ghosts of a industrial past remain.

When I was growing up in Scotland, the British state counted for an

awful lot. It bound the British together in a common purpose, a

great kind of shared enterprise. The British state mined coal, built

ships. There were shipyards along this stretch here. It even

manufactured motorcars. By the 1970s, all that had begun to change.

I think the idea that the UK was going to be a welfare state, that

you could be proud of, that would look after citizens from cradle to

grave, that was seen as a mission for the of British state that was

supposed to emerge after the Second World War. Up until the 1970s people

felt that was being achieved. At that point things began to go wrong.

I can only give you one gallon, Sir. That will get you to your nearest

garage. In the early 1970s, Britain suffered

a series of economic shocks. In 1973, a gallon of four star doubled

in price to hit 73 pence. Standards of living dropped. People

started to see that in the post imperial world, they were subject to

forces beyond their control. In Scotland, North Sea oil, recently

discovered, acquired political symbolism.

Now back to the election campaign here in Scotland.

In the October 1974 election, Conservative rural Galloway where I

lived return a Scottish nationalist MP to Westminster. I remember the

shock of it. The nationalists claim they are now

the fastest growing political party in Europe and that they have doubled

their vote in every election since the war.

Nationalists saw oil as Scotland's economic route to independence. Most

Scots seemed unimpressed. In the 1970s the SNP wanted to win support

from Labour voters, from anywhere. It didn't like to define itself on

the left/right spectrum. It was a Scottish National Party. It caused

enormous difficulties. It had not really settled on what kind of

political party it was, beyond believing in independence.

But there was something wrong with the Britain that most Scots still

adhered to. It seemed preoccupied with managing its own decline. In my

first year at Edinburgh University, as the "Winter of Discontent" took

hold, the most pressing question we debated in politics was whether

Britain had become ungovernable. My old university friend Laurie

O'Donnell got involved in the student union with me. We had some

SNP friends back then, but neither of us thought they would become the

nom nant force in Scotland. -- dominant force in Scotland. How

would you characterise the SNP of those years? They were mad-cap

really. Mixed. Some really good people in there. They did attract a

bit of a lunatic fringe as well. They seemed to be anti-English.

There was a sense they were anti-English. Nationalists in

Scotland has never been linguistic. The English are irritated. They are

perfectly lovely people. The only problem is with five million and 58

million, there are too many of them. Somebody said if an elephant is in

bed with you, it will roll over in the middle of the night and flatten

you. But it doesn't intend to and doesn't even know it. Scotland's

first real flirtation with devolution came in 1979. It was the

first vote I ever cast. I was 19 years old.

The referendum that year offered an elected Scottish Assembly.

Scot Scotland didn't say no or yes. It said, well, maybe we ought to go

homeward to think again. Scotland voted far rofly in favour. It --

narrowly in favour. More than one in three Scots didn't even vote. It was

an odd period. I mean, history has rewritten it to an extent. At the

end of the day, the turnout was low. The majority for a Scottish Assembly

was slim. And there was really no broad-based appetite for it at that

point. The day after the referendum, the

Glasgow Herald ran a cartoon that summed up the mood. The idea that

Scotland the brave had, when tested, in fact been feared entered the

national narrative. In 1974, in the second election of

that year, in October, the SNP won I think 10 or 11 seats. By 1979, these

seats had virtually all disappeared. So, Scottish opinion, I think,

veered from one direction to another. So, having made kind of a

break through, the SNP rather lost their way towards the end of the

1970s. Nationalism failed to take hold.

Most Scots were either indifferent or overtly hostile to independence.

In fact, in the general election that followed that failed

referendum, one in three Scots voted Conservative.

Easy to forget now. Good afternoon, Prime Minister. In

1979, when Margaret Thatcher came to power, there were 22 Tory MPs from

Scotland. Where there is discord, may we bring

harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is

doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we

bring hope. Margaret Thatcher set out to make

Britain governable. She would represent a radical break with her

predecessors and the management of decline. She would take on what she

saw as the excessive power of the trade unions. Those which had almost

brought Britain to a standstill. A turbulent decade-long journey lay

ahead, that would reshape Britain and Scotland's place in it.

Newton Grange is the kind of pit village which breeds mining legends.

For nearly 100 years it has sent its sons underground.

In 1984 there were 21,000 coal miners in Scotland, now there are a

few hundred. When the miners took on the Thatcher

Government, the Thatcher Government won.

Today, it is the heritage industry, like this former mine turned museum

which employs miners now. Britain was an island of coal. It was built

on coal. Coal, like empire, was a shared British experience, a common

enterprise. Nicky Wilson went into a pit near

Glasgow in the late 1960s at the age of 17. As a young man I used to love

and sit and listen to the older men talking about the hard times, hard

to get decent wanes. It has never been a Scottish Orwell sh miners'

union. We had areas within the union, but the Britishness was

always important. It is a national union. That is where the strength

laid. These industrial communities were tough places for the SNP to win

support. Working-class voters would say to activists, but we work for

something called the National Coal Board, or British steel or British

Shipbuilders, that is what pays our wages, our factories are integrated

with plants elsewhere in the UK. Are you going to unpick all of that?

But it was to be unpicked, anyway. Mrs Thatcher wanted a modern, lean,

productive Britain. There was no place in it for old industries that

had lost their global markets and could no longer pay their way.

Slowly something else would be chipped away as the old industries

fell into the dust. A culture, a way of thinking, a set of loyalties.

Nicky is still proud of the principles he spent his whole

working life fighting for - the cross border solidarity of the old

trade union movement. He will not vote for Scottish independence. Does

it spring from that experience of miners elsewhere in the UK? Yes, we

were taught by my mentors, a fight for one is a fight for everyone. The

minute you start to separate, then you weaken yourself and that goes

against the grade and everything we were taught within the National

Union of Mineworkers. My parents' generation were born in the 1930s.

The Britain they inherited emerged we -- emerged we nor mouse stature.

We can argue about the deindustrialisation of the 1980s,

whether it was necessary or needlessly brutal. One unintended

consequence was this... These industries were great and British

enterprises and the communities that sustained them were bedrocks, not

just of Labour loyalty but a British identity and solidarity in Scotland.

They have all but gone. With each year that passes, they received --

receded further into the middle distance of our collective memory.

They allowed people to sink or swim and no longer supported different

industries even though the community consequences were devastating. At

that moment, they did not have a subtle enough understanding of the

politics of the union. They began the breakup of the old Britain. New

Britain was being born, reshaping some of the values by which the

country left. In that new Britain, the market would drive wealth

creation, the frontiers of the state would be rolled back. Increasingly,

the market is global. The company that lights your home now probably

is not even British now. Jaguar was taken over first by the Americans

and this Jaguar was made by an Indian owned company. Some people

say we are not a Scottish party, neither are we an English party, a

Welsh party or an Irish party. We are party of the whole United

Kingdom. Scotland began to rebel against his New Britain in the

1980s. In 1987, support for Mrs Thatcher fell off a cliff. The 21

MPs were cut to ten. Traditional industries where being closed. Mrs

Thatcher was doing nothing to protect them. She was anti-Scottish

and her party was anti-Scottish. In 1988, Margaret Thatcher addressed

the General Assembly of the -- of the Church of Scotland, the closest

thing the country had to parliament. Christianity should be about

spiritual redemption and not social reform. She quoted Saint Paul. If a

man will not work, he shall not eat. Clearly she thought this was an

opportunity to deliver a sort of sermon. It was sort of theological

self defence almost. It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong but

love of money for its own sake. The spiritual dimension comes in

deciding what 1 does with the wealth. My reaction like many others

was she has not really understood the mood of the nation at this time

or the nature of this occasion. There is no hierarchy in the Church

of Scotland, no priests, nope bishops. The core doctrine is

equality of all believers. Against Mrs Thatcher was a Scottish Gaelic

Aryan spirit in sober Presbyterians blood. -- Eagan al Terry on. It

confirmed that Margaret Thatcher is self and the policies were uncle

Gene you will too Scottish people. -- were not congenial. Waitangi

could almost hear the bonds of the union loosening. -- you could almost

hear. Many saw this as emblematic of the diverging to pass that Scotland

and the United Kingdom seem to be walking. You could sense the dismay

in this hall. It was about the values they had come to associate

with Mrs Thatcher 's Britain. Had there been a form of one nation

Toryism, the kind that had been evident in some of the previous

Conservative governments, the move towards devolution and independence

would not have happened so quickly. In 1992, Scottish Conservatives

increased their representation at Westminster from ten to 11 out of

the 72 Scottish MPs. Scotland was still voting decisively against

Conservative governments. For the fourth consecutive time, a team of

Conservative ministers appointed by and answerable to the Prime Minister

in London and moved into St Andrew's house to govern Scotland. Opposition

MPs and grassroots activists began to talk of a democratic deficit.

They argued that Conservative policies, supported by an English

electorate, where being forced on Scotland despite having been

repeatedly rejected at the ballot box. The very legitimacy of

Westminster to govern at all in Scotland was being challenged. There

was a strong feeling that Scotland is different and the needs, hopes of

the Scottish people were not being taken into account by the

Westminster government. We need a devolved parliament. The belief that

Westminster had no mandate in Scotland became common currency.

Labour, the largest party, walked onto that territory and claimed it.

It was labour which really pushed the argument that there was a

democratic deficit. The Tories were illegitimate and conservatism was an

alien ideology. That, of course, was a nationalist argument. Once at best

lukewarm about devolution, Labour were its champions. Ten years on,

the Times had come. -- be time for devolution had come. The Queen led

the ceremonies at the opening of Scotland 's first parliament since

1707. It had been backed by an overwhelming majority of voters.

Above all, this was Labour 's baby. Donald Dewar was its founding

father. Walter Scott said only a man with soul so dead could have no

sense, no feel for his native land. For me, and I think in this I speak

at least for any Scot today, this is a proud moment. The parliament was

created to end constitutional uncertainty and not become a

stepping stone to independence. Devolution Labour believed was what

they called the settled will of the Scottish people. This parliament

would meet democratic aspirations and see off the SNP as an electoral

threat. In the words of George Robinson, it would kill nationalism

stone dead. There was an expectation that once you had parliament where

that would be the end. It would be all that the Scots wanted. There was

a failure to appreciate that the creation of this parliament would

also create a new dynamic in Scottish politics. It gave the SNP

the opportunity to become a governing party for the 1st time. In

the hands of Alex Salmond, the SNP have become a very different kind of

party. He led the SMP from a fringe movement in 1990. It had three MPs

and they were not a series also that they were not taken seriously. Had

you said that independent Scotland could not survive economically, very

few people would have disagreed. While Labour 's top Scottish talent

went back to Westminster believing the Nationalist threat had been seen

off once and for all, the S MPs stayed at home and prospered. They

won an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament. They have been

bestowed trust in a Scottish election. We will take that mandate

and that trust forward. That victory made a referendum on independence

inevitable. When the referendum terms were signed, there remained

disagreement on one thing. Alex Salmond wanted a third option,

enhanced devolution, but still within the UK. Poll suggested that

was what most Scots wanted. The same polls said support for independence

was stuck around 30%. David Cameron said, no, no 3rd option. The choice

should be decisive, independence or not.

If Scotland votes yes on Thursday, will David Cameron regret shaking

hands with Alex Salmond on that deal? It was very much the sense of

the time that this issue, independence or not independence,

was so clear cut that it was necessary to focus on that. With the

benefit of hindsight which always gives an advantage, then perhaps an

additional question might have been appropriate. All 3 Westminster party

leaders have argued passionately for the union. Are they making errors of

judgment? It is a momentous decision. It is not a decision you

can make now and undo tomorrow. Sign up if you are fed up with the effing

Tories, give them a kick. This is totally different. Do not listen to

the lies and scaremongering of the S NP. It is not about me or any

political party. It is about the right of Scotland to have a

government of our choice. I see the changes that have swept Scotland

these 30 years reflected in many of the friends of my youth. After we

left university, Laurie O'Donnell became a Labour councillor in

Dundee. He fought the SNP. Now, the Nationalists are no longer the only

ones who have embraced the yes campaign. Laurie O'Donnell has as

well. I am anti-Trident. I support free education for all. All of that

seems to be a core of what I believe in. 30 years ago I would not have

believed he would support independence. I think you probably

were not listening to me. I have always said, it is a democratic

question. People should decide how best to govern their lives. For me,

it is not about independence, it is about democracy. There is a mystery

about this. Social attitudes surveys reveal that Scots do not seem to be

more left wing issue by issue than anyone else, at least not by very

much. Why does Scotland make such radically different choices at

elections? Why does this central Edinburgh constituency return a

Labour MP dependably at election after election? When I first lived

here it was solid, Conservative territory, utterly safe and

Edinburgh was a conservative city. It seems to me there has been a

long, slow revolt in Scotland against what is perceived here to be

the growing inequality of British society. I am struck by how little

of this debate at grassroots level has been about national identity and

how much of it has been driven by the idea that an independent

Scotland, rightly or only, could be a fairer, more equal society. If

Scotland votes no on Thursday, what is the future for the union? Will

the genie of Scottish independence go back into its bottle? One view is

that devolution is a work in progress, a staging pro that is the

proposed on a long journey that will 1 day end in independence. -- a

staging post. Someone Tommy this was the high watermark for independence.

After the vote, the tide will go out. When will the Nationalist stars

he so aligned again? The tail end of a long recession, austerities, cuts

and spending and an SNP majority at Holyrood. When will that happen for

them again? What is the glue that holds the union together? Can it

compare with the power of Empire, the building of a new Britain after

the war. Many Scots still feel British to their core. How many? If

Scotland votes no this week, is that it? Is the union saved? If I have

learned anything from reporting this campaign, it is this. Future

generations of Scots will need reasons to love and trust the union

as our parents and grandparents did rather than simply to fear Beale

tenanted. -- the all turn. Is rocket science

easier than you think? Well, BBC iWonder

is full of great questions