Salmond shouts his way to debate win

SCOTLAND First Minister Alec Salmond struck back in the second independence debate after he repeatedly shouted down his opponent Alistair Darling in an ill-tempered contest.

A snap poll by ICM showed 71% thought Mr Salmond had won the debate against just 29% for Mr Darling. Those figures represent quite a turnaround for Mr Salmond after Mr Darling's surprise win three weeks ago.

Nevertheless, with just over three weeks to go until polling day - and some postal voting taking place from this week - it was the least the Scottish Nationalist leader needed to do.

And yet, at this late stage, it still may not be enough.

For, although Mr Salmond was undoubtedly the clear victor last night, the standard of the debate at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow was frankly appalling.

Indeed, it was so poor that it may have put off those who are undecided from voting altogether, something over which BBC Scotland moderator Glenn Campbell must be held responsible.

Campbell seemed content to allow Mr Salmond to talk over Mr Darling, often not allowing the former Chancellor of the Exchequer to answer the question fully.

And it had the effect of creating a rather unedifying spectacle with satirist Charlie Brooker best summing up the viewer's perspective on Twitter. "This sounds like eight debates at once," he wrote.

In fact, the debate was meant to have been pretty well-structured with opening statements followed by four defined sections - on the economy, on home affairs, on foreign affairs and on Scotland's immediate future after the referendum.

In the middle of the four topics, the pair also had the opportunity to cross-examine one another - but this had the purely predictable result of the audience just not being able to hear either of them.

Finally, there were the closing statements when at least Mr Salmond had the decency to allow a clearly defeated Mr Darling to speak uninterrupted at the end.

And so why, other than Mr Salmond's bawling tactics, had Mr Darling found things so tough?

Well, one thing the former Chancellor let slip quite early on in the debate was that Scotland would still be able to use the pound outside of a currency union.

Mr Salmond immediately seized on this - but Mr Darling correctly countered that such an arrangement would leave Scotland without access to a Central Bank and thus a lender of last resort.

Home affairs were tougher again for Labour MP Mr Darling as he stood on his podium having to defend some of the policies of David Cameron on the NHS and welfare cuts.

And there was a particularly hairy moment for him when an audience member accused Mr Darling of being a hypocrite because of his support, while in government, for NHS privatisation.

The MP for Edinburgh South West found the contest in the second half of the night more easy-going and there were fewer flashpoints.

The last section - on what will happen to Scotland after the vote - actually allowed some of the bitterness of the campaign to be tempered.

This was to the extent that, on account of victory in the referendum, Mr Salmond even offered Mr Darling a place in an all-party group to negotiate independence.

Mr Darling, of course, still hopes that will not be necessary - but it really is more difficult to tell after Mr Salmond's rambunctious performance last night. 

Ultimately, though, any swing to "Aye" will probably not be enough - and so my bold prediction for 18 September is still for a narrow "Naw" win of 53% to 47%.