Getting in the write mood for a long 18 months

“The next 18 months will be the most exciting in Scotland’s history as the country prepares to vote in the independence referendum,” Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.

She declared the crucial ballot, to be held on 18th September next year, would be Scotland’s “date with destiny”.

Thus spake the seraph – or to be more exact, the Scottish press last week.

Hmm.

Well, I am not a member of the SNP – so if you feel like applying salt to what I am about to say, then you have my full permission.

The dear old Scottish press seems to spend a lot of column inches rubbishing independence.

No matter which paper I pick up, from a red-topped tabloid to that fount of all wisdom, The Times, they’re all telling us that an independent Scotland would be broke, the oil will run out, haggises will become extinct and that it will be the end of all life as we know it.

Frankly it must be a brave man who takes the morning papers to Bute House for Alex Salmond to peruse over his cornflakes. I certainly wouldn’t care for the job.

Now, are the newspapers being quite as fair as they should be? Ah – that’s the question. And by way of background, let me share with you something that was being said by Scottish politicians a few years ago when, with a blast of the trumpets, the Queen opened the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and there was a lot of interest.

The newly-established teams of newspaper reporters covering the early days of the Parliament had a lot to write about.

The spiralling costs of the new building, MSPs getting commemorative medals to mark the opening, the fact that pigeon poo got into the ventilation system, it was all grist to the mill.

The reporters scribbled away, filed their copy, and then went for a refreshment or three in Deacon Brodie’s, the famous old bar in the Royal Mile. Hey ho, it was great old time.

But then it was said – amongst politicians certainly – that once the initial excitement of the new Parliament was over, and the MSPs were settling down to mundane legislation, some newspaper editors were finding that there really wasn’t enough hard news coming out of the Scottish Parliament to justify the cost of keeping large teams of journalists in Edinburgh simply to cover the Parliament.

Perish the thought, but we MSPs heard that the numbers of journalists were about to be reduced. Egad!

Now at this point, enter stage right a conspiracy theory. (Salt cellars at the ready, dear SNP friends!) It goes like this.

In the 2007 Scottish election the SNP won more seats than any other party in the Scottish Parliament – and accordingly formed a minority Scottish Government. This was no mean achievement – and the conspiracy theory put about by the other unsuccessful parties was that this achievement was greatly helped by a sympathetic Scottish press during the run-up to the election.

Why did the journalists talk up Alex Salmond and the SNP? Aha – it was muttered – to make sure that Scottish politics was suddenly interesting again; so interesting that no editor in his or her right mind would dream of reducing their teams of reporters in Holyrood.

Rather than any genuine support of the SNP and the goal of independence, it was all about reporters saving their jobs! How twisted a conspiracy theory was that? So twisted, that I probably shouldn’t be sharing it with you here in this column.

And yes, I suppose that it could have been simply nonsense put about by disgruntled MSPs who loathed the sight of Alex Salmond lording it in Bute House.

But, back to where I started – what the newspapers are saying today about the SNP and Independence is a mighty contrast to what they were saying before the 2007 Scottish election. It fairly takes my breath away.

Conspiracy theory or no – it does go to show that the press is fickle. But there again, I guess that we always knew that.

It’s going to be a long 18 months.