Mal Fletcher comments on the Scottish Independence debate

Mal Fletcher

The much vaunted Scottish Independence debate last night turned out to be something of a non-event if you happen to live anywhere south of the border.

While the issue of whether Scotland should leave the UK is, by edict of David Cameron, for the Scots alone to decide, it is a decision in which the rest of the UK has an interest.

Sadly, it seems, certain TV executives assumed we'd all rather be watching Love Your Garden or Kids Behind Bars, a documentary about American young offenders.

ITV, the company with the rights to broadcast the debate, farmed it out to its Scottish subsidiary STV. The mother ship refused even to air it on its smaller ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 platforms, which would have served a greater part of the nation.

If the Scots weren't already angry with their Sassenach cousins, this apparent lack of interest in their future should get them riled.

Press reports today suggest it certainly had that effect on a few non-Scots in the Union.

In the end, STV made a feeble attempt to share the debate with the UK at large by streaming it live on their website. I say feeble because hardly anyone seems to have been able to get it to work - the demand overloaded the system.

All things considered, though, what started out as a major irritation turned into something of a boon - at least for this viewer. Rather than decamping to watch Alan Titchmarsh and his doubtless riveting ruminations on floriculture, I followed at least part of the debate on Twitter.

This is, of course, loaded with potential traps for the unwary or the politically naïve.

In the same way that unscrupulous hotel owners have their staff fill out positive online reviews about their services, political lobbyists (barely) disguised as wide-eyed citizens will take to social media to share their views on a debate.

If you read social media streams for no more than a few minutes, you'll come away thinking that either side A or side B are scoring big-time over their hapless and ill-informed rivals. What was billed as a debate will look like a drubbing.

If you follow the social media coverage intermittently, you'll likewise form the impression that one side or the other - or both - are spouting complete tosh and that the entire nation is incensed by it!

Because social media are built on stream-of-consciousness communication the comments you read at any given moment are locked onto only what has just been said. These comments provide no background or overview.

There is certainly no opportunity to gauge such things as body language or audience reaction, which are an important part of a public debate.