Until now, television coverage of Scotland’s independence referendum has largely been confined to news bulletins and specialist, late night, political programmes unwatched by most of the general public. In that sense, then, the campaign has hardly actually begun. It has not yet found a mass audience. But it will and moving the campaign to prime-time will change it too.
That process began last night as STV broadcast the first episode of a three part documentary titled Road to Referendum (viewers in England can watch it here). It offered a potted political and social history of Scotland from 1945 to 1974. (The next episode will focus on the Thatcher Dragon and the final part, one supposes, upon Holyrood’s short history.)
There was nothing in last night’s programme to disappoint the SNP or the wider nationalist movement. On the contrary Road to Referendum, written and presented by Iain Macwhirter, could easily be seen – at least in this first episode – as an endorsement of the nationalist view of Scottish post-war history.
If stories matter in politics – and I think they do – then one of the largest problems facing Unionists is their lack of a narrative.
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