Let's Get Rid of Scotland: An Intelligence Squared Debate

Let's Get Rid of Scotland:
Alex Salmond MP, Visiting Professor of Economics at Strathclyde University; Neal Ascherson, a journalist and writer who was born in Edinburgh; and Kevin Myers, a broadcaster, novelist, and award-winning correspondent for his coverage of the conflicts in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, spoke for the motion.

The Rt. Hon. Helen Liddell MP, former Chief Executive of the Business Venture Programme and director of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail; Magnus Linklater, Scotland-born and raised columnist for The Times and Scotland on Sunday; and Jamie McGrigor MSP, member of the Scottish Parliament for Highlands and Islands, spoke against the motion.

The debate, held on March 17, 2004, was chaired by Joan Bakewell, whose broadcasting career spans 35 years.

Intelligence Squared is London's leading forum for live debate, holding regular debates on the crucial issues of the day and inviting the leading intellectual and political lights on the given subject to participate in them. The format of the debates is modeled on the one employed at the Oxford and Cambridge university Unions: a challenging, sharply defined motion; a team of speakers to propose the motion and a like number to oppose it; and a moderator to keep the speakers and the audience in order and force everyone to stick to the issues. After the main speeches and before summation, contributions are asked from the floor: audience participation is a key feature of the occasion, providing a rare opportunity for the public to voice their opinions and to challenge those of the speakers. A vote is taken before the debate begins and then again at the end so as to give a measure, often a very dramatic one, of the extent to which the audience has been swayed by the oratory and arguments of the speakers in the course of the evening.