I watched the TV debates between the YES and NO campaigns for the break up of the UK out of a sense of duty – in part to see how many mentions sustainability got.
Well, I heard two – sort of.
First, there was Salmond's much repeated joke about their being more pandas in Edinburgh zoo than Tory MPs at Westminster. That is a fact; the ratio is 2 : 1. However, as is typical of Salmond, there was another fact hidden behind the first: of late, between 14 and 19% [typically ~17%] of people have voted conservative in Scotland in all kinds of elections, and they now have 15 MSPs at Holyrood. This may well continue as the Tories, whatever their faults, do know how to breed – and, unlike pandas, can mostly do so unaided.
The only other mention I heard – and I did fall asleep at one point in the first debate, despite watching it in the afternoon – was when oil was the focus. The sustainability of the money from oil is key to Scotland's future, it seems, no matter how many times you spend the cash.
Depressing stuff; but more depressing still was the standard of comment and questioning from some of the audience where credulity was much in evidence. And here was me thinking that the Scottish education system was all about engendering critical thinking.
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