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100 Days of Hope and Fear: How Scotland's Referendum was Lost and Won
Was it simply a victory for fear over hope?
How did the Better Together campaign come so close to losing it?
How did the Yes campaign come so close to winning it?
What can the people of Scotland – and other aspirant nations – learn from this seismic democratic event? Scotland’s independence referendum on 18 September 2014 was the most significant ballot in Scotland’s history. The 100 days up to 18 September was the official campaign period and the world’s media was watching. David Torrance was there throughout, in front of the cameras, on the radio, in the newspapers, at the debates and gatherings, privy to some of the behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings.
A passionate federalist at heart, described disparagingly by the outgoing First Minister as �Tory-leaning’, Torrance made a valiant attempt to remain �professionally neutral’ throughout. His commentary and analysis as the campaign went through its many twists and turns was always insightful, if not always popular.
'Reading this diary back during the editing process it was clear that, like (Nate) Silver (the US polling guru whose view was that the Yes campaign had virtually no chance of victory), I got a lot of things wrong (including the likely margin of victory) but also many things broadly correct. At least I can plead, as journalists often do, that I was probably right at the time.'
David Torrance has emerged as one of the campaign's most important commentators... [his] unauthorised biography of Alex Salmond, Against the Odds, has become the prescribed text for the flying columns of English-based and overseas journalists converging on Scotland in this our hour of destiny.
KEVIN McKENNA, Scottish Review of Books
Torrance has secured himself a prominent position in the referendum debate, partly through the strategic use of nice jumpers and expertly crafted hair, but largely on merit … [he deserves] far better than the lazy impossibilist critiques to which [his federalist] proposals have been subjected.
RORY SCOTHORNE on Britain Rebooted
F*** sake... David Torrance on again. Is the greasy weasel never aff the telly?
CALUM FINDLAY [on Twitter]
How did the Better Together campaign come so close to losing it?
How did the Yes campaign come so close to winning it?
What can the people of Scotland – and other aspirant nations – learn from this seismic democratic event? Scotland’s independence referendum on 18 September 2014 was the most significant ballot in Scotland’s history. The 100 days up to 18 September was the official campaign period and the world’s media was watching. David Torrance was there throughout, in front of the cameras, on the radio, in the newspapers, at the debates and gatherings, privy to some of the behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings.
A passionate federalist at heart, described disparagingly by the outgoing First Minister as �Tory-leaning’, Torrance made a valiant attempt to remain �professionally neutral’ throughout. His commentary and analysis as the campaign went through its many twists and turns was always insightful, if not always popular.
'Reading this diary back during the editing process it was clear that, like (Nate) Silver (the US polling guru whose view was that the Yes campaign had virtually no chance of victory), I got a lot of things wrong (including the likely margin of victory) but also many things broadly correct. At least I can plead, as journalists often do, that I was probably right at the time.'
David Torrance has emerged as one of the campaign's most important commentators... [his] unauthorised biography of Alex Salmond, Against the Odds, has become the prescribed text for the flying columns of English-based and overseas journalists converging on Scotland in this our hour of destiny.
KEVIN McKENNA, Scottish Review of Books
Torrance has secured himself a prominent position in the referendum debate, partly through the strategic use of nice jumpers and expertly crafted hair, but largely on merit … [he deserves] far better than the lazy impossibilist critiques to which [his federalist] proposals have been subjected.
RORY SCOTHORNE on Britain Rebooted
F*** sake... David Torrance on again. Is the greasy weasel never aff the telly?
CALUM FINDLAY [on Twitter]
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2014
About the author
David Torrance
42 books13 followersDavid Torrance is Devolution and Constitution Specialist at the House of Commons Library. He was formerly a freelance writer, broadcaster and journalist, reporting on the Scottish Parliament for STV, and contributing political commentary to a wide range of publications including The Scotsman, The Herald and The Times. He is the author of several books on Scottish politics, the best known being his unauthorised biographies of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond. He is the author of Standing up for Scotland: Nationalist Unionism and Scottish Party Politics, 1884–2014 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) and the editor of Ruth Davidson's Conservatives: The Scottish Tory Party, 2011–19 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) and Whatever Happened to Tory Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2012).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 4, 2022
This took unnecessarily long to read and while it was for academic reasons (debatable hence whether I should have read it in the first place), it had limited usefulness for me. Totally unnecessary to know what the author ate at times and how often he swam, though I understand this was supposed to be a personal diary of sorts. Not my fave book of his but it anecdotally confirmed part of my doctoral thesis, so that's nice.
December 19, 2014
There isn’t much by way of political analysis in 100 Days (that’s not really the point of the diary) but personally it was worth the read for this quote that turned me on to the journal Renewal
Other than that it's worth the read if you're interested in the behind-the-scenes of the referendum campaign and/or the work schedule of a freelance political journalist, complete with a few great quips like: "[Dad's] verdct on the debate was 'Darling's a tube' ... part of me wonders why I bother churning out hundreds of words of analysis when he can be so concise."
"Nothing could be more indicative of the intellectual crisis of Scottish nationalism than the fact that this political movement, which set out criticising the British state for its attachment to feudal totems and international finance, has ended up relying on the monarchy and the Bank of England as the guarantors of a Scottish ‘independence’ that approaches parody […] In comparison to the Scottish nationalism of 1999 or even 2007, that of 2014 lacks a coherent account of either the state or the economy. In its place, a politics of assertion, rejection and blind hope has emerged. The style and mode of the SNP’s argumentation has become correspondingly vague, simplifying, and wilfully obfuscatory. Both its fabled ‘positivity’ and its quickness to blame arise from a comfortingly voluntaristic conception of politics, in which Scotland’s problems can be attributed to malign foreign institutions that are wilfully frustrating the natural genius of its people." – James Stafford, Independence After the Crash
Other than that it's worth the read if you're interested in the behind-the-scenes of the referendum campaign and/or the work schedule of a freelance political journalist, complete with a few great quips like: "[Dad's] verdct on the debate was 'Darling's a tube' ... part of me wonders why I bother churning out hundreds of words of analysis when he can be so concise."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews