Yes Scotland: No campaign ‘cowering’ in Glasgow

Pro-independence activists in Glasgow have accused the Better Together campaign of “running scared and dodging debates” after proposals for a cross-campaign debate in Scotland’s largest city were shot down.

According to the Yes Glasgow group, local Better Together activists were “supportive of the idea” of a large-scale, city-wide independence debate when contacted in October, but the idea was shot down by Better Together HQ as they felt there wasn’t a “gaping hole in the debate market”.

In a series of tweets from @YesGlasgow this morning, the group explained that after a seemingly positive initial response, it contacted Better Together in the new year, offering to organise the event if they “committed to joint funding/advertising [and] support”. The offer was turned down.

Yesterday, Better Together reportedly told Yes Glasgow organisers that they “don’t really see the need” for a cross-campaign debate, as “there are so many debates organised by third parties” – and rejected the suggestion that these third-party debates were not easily accessible to the public.

When Yes Glasgow told Better Together it was “committed to increasing open debate with or without them, and would contact representatives of No individually”, the No campaign allegedly responded with only a three-word message: “Best of British!”

But Yes Glasgow says it still wants to go ahead with “an open and fair debate between each side”.

Natalie McGarry, a lead volunteer in Yes Glasgow as well as convenor of the Glasgow SNP, told the press today: “We were confident that we had a commitment from local campaigners to the concept and principle of open debate and jointly reaching out to the communities of Glasgow.

“The short response from their headquarters makes a mockery of that trust and demonstrates that Better Together cannot be trusted to engage in open debate or to follow through on their commitments.”

She said the tone from the rival campaign’s headquarters “smacks of contempt for ordinary Glaswegians”, and that the large turnout at both campaigns’ Glasgow launches made it “difficult to understand why Better Together shy away from the idea of a jointly organised debate”.

She added: “The opportunity we have in September is too big to left to politicians to debate alone, so we want to create a debate where Glasgwegians can hear the arguments for and against independence from people from various backgrounds.”

Rob Shorthouse, Director of Communications at Better Together, dismissed the accusation as “petulant tosh”, telling The Targe: “We are taking part in literally hundreds of debates across Scotland – and the Yes camp know this as they are there too.”