Yes Scotland and how Alex Salmond launched push for independence

READ MORE: Why the fight for independence has left Yes Scotland behind

But as the Glasgow Herald reminded readers the following day, political campaigns should never be launched in a cinema: there are just too many hostages to fortune. Every poster in the foyer at the "curiously shambling, hand-knitted start" to Yes Scotland proved it, the paper added, as TV cameras "zoomed in on ads for Dark Shadows, The Dictator and Avengers Assemble to juxtapose with Alex Salmond and the fevered Nationalist horde packed into Edinburgh's Cineworld Screen 7". Journalists "seemed almost embarrassed by the wealth of irony on offer".

The SNP was on a high after its landslide win in the May 2011 Holyrood elections, when it had won 69 of the 129 seats and consigned Scottish Labour to to its worst result in Scotland since 1931. The SNP, which had run a minority administration since 2007, had campaigned on a manifesto commitment to an independence referendum. Now it had a mandate from the voters – and David Cameron, the prime minister, had a dilemma.

Alex Salmond told the launch of the Yes Scotland campaign that activists were uniting 'behind a declaration of self-evident truth' (Image: David Cheskin/PA)

As Cameron would reflect in his memoirs, there was the option of making a referendum non-binding, or denying it altogether. Many people wanted that, he wrote; after all, a referendum was a massive gamble. He calculated, however, that thwarting a referendum would be a much bigger gamble.

READ MORE: Ex-Yes Scotland director: SNP trashed us - that's why we lost in 2014

"The sense of grievance against a distant, out-of-touch Westminster government would only grow", he wrote. "That would be the fuel the SNP needed to turn an unlikely vote for independence – in 2012 only about 35 per cent of Scots were saying they would vote Yes – into a near-certainty".

Cameron said the Conservatives suspected that the SNP "didn't want a proper independence referendum after all", fearing that it might be lost, and that the nationalists were happy to continue governing and nursing the grievance. But he believed that the pro-Union forces would triumph, and on January 8, 2012, while being interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show, he announced that a referendum would be held. A consultation document on Scotland’s constitutional future was published two days later.

Gordon Brown, Cameron's predecessor at Number Ten, began sounding out Alistair Darling, his former Chancellor, about leading the anti-independence campaign. In February Cameron himself went to Edinburgh for the first of his meetings with Salmond, whom he would describe as "the slipperiest of characters". (The Edinburgh Agreement, which transferred the power to legislate for the referendum to the Scottish Parliament, was signed later that year, on October 15).

First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron sign a referendum agreement at St Andrew's House in Edinburgh on October 15, 2012 (Image: Newsquest)On the very morning of the Yes Scotland launch in May, Darling sought to spike its guns by releasing a YouGov poll which showed that 57% of Scottish voters were against independence, with 10% undecided.

Alongside the first minister on the Cineworld platform was an array of noted political and showbiz names, from Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Green Party, to Scots-born actors Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, and Martin Compston, the latter acting as compere.

READ MORE: 2012 REVIEW: ROAD TO THE REFERENDUM

Salmond, predicting that a million Scots would sign an Independence for Scotland declaration, said: "We're at the start of something very, very special - the beginning of a campaign to restore nationhood to the nation of Scotland. Our opponents are rich and their powerful and therefore to win and to win well, we're going to have to galvanise the whole community of the realm of Scotland ... We want a Scotland that’s greener, that’s fairer and more prosperous".

Martin Compston said: "I believe we have the right to determine our own destiny"; Alan Cumming declared that Scotland had "blossomed" since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and added: "I believe independence can only add to our potential. The world is waiting for us."

Compston also read out a message from Sir Sean Connery: "This is a historic day for Scotland. The Yes campaign has centred on a positive vision for Scotland. It is rooted in inclusiveness, equality and that core democratic value that the people of Scotland are the best guardians of their own future."

Pro-independence campaigners and MSPs march through the streets of Edinburgh to Carlton Hill, for a Rally for Scottish Independence, September 2013 (Image: Stewart Attwood)The breadth of support for Yes was illustrated by Tommy Brennan, the shop steward who fought to save Ravenscraig, declaring that he had no fears about independence, and Liz Lochhead, Scotland's Makar, proudly disclaiming any political allegiance.

As the following day's Herald described it,  it was the personal testimonies, which at times brought the atmosphere closer to confession, that underpinned the event with credibility. "Dennis Canavan, a Labour MP for 25 years and an independent MSP for eight, explaining that he backed independence because it would be a step towards social justice, took the campaign beyond party political interest, a stance boosted by his well-known disagreement with the SNP over the retention of the monarchy.

READ MORE: Salmond: Glasgow needs a political overhaul

"In declaring that he was proud to be the voice of New Labour in 2007 and still espoused Labour values, Brian Cox, the Dundee-born actor, conveyed to Labour voters attracted by independence the idea that they would not be alone in concluding that Scotland would be better off controlling its own destiny instead of leaving it to the Westminster Parliament 'which has not the foggiest clue about Scotland's cultural, economic and social needs'."

Though media reaction to the Yes Scotland launch was decidedly mixed, it was generally accepted that the cross-party aspect had been successfully conveyed.
In a video interview immediately afterwards, Salmond cited the degree of optimism and positivity and added: "It couldn't be better as a launch".

"We are going to win", he added, "and to win we have to keep it positive. The No campaign are a bunch of talking heads and Westminster failed politicians who have nothing to offer but negativity. To win this campaign we have got to counterpoint that and offer a totally positive message about the potential.

"We're not saying everything is going to be fantastic about an independent Scotland but we saying we have the potential to make the country better".

He acknowledged that this was only the beginning of the journey. "We've got work to do, we've got people to convince, we've got a nation to mobilise, we've a million folk to get to sign the ... declaration. That's a lot of folk, but if we do that, then we will win the referendum.

It failed to win independence but Yes transformed politics in Scotland and changed the UK forever

"If people sign that, they'll sign up for a self-evident truth - and that self-evident truth is that the people best-placed to run Scotland are the folk who live in Scotland. That is so obvious - and if you sign that, then you'll vote Yes. So that's the campaigning mechanism by which we mobilise the communities of Scotland. And making a start on that today was absolutely fantastic".

* Next week: The launch of Better Together.