How BBC Question Time predicted Brexit and Debate Night is sensing a new trend in Scotland
BBC Scotland’s Debate Night host Stephen Jardine explains why his show provides a real insight into what the public are thinking
Batten down the hatches, here we go again. It’s seven years this month since we launched Debate Night on BBC Scotland as the place where the people get to take on the politicians.
And right now, people are not happy. Ahead of this week’s start of a new series in New Lanark, I asked the audience how they felt about politics at the moment. Scunnered, exhausted and angry were the printable replies.
Expect much more of that in the weeks ahead as we count down the days to the Scottish Parliament elections in May. If you want to know where we are heading, watch Debate Night. Alongside the election itself, it’s the ultimate exercise in democracy.
The madder corners of social media claim the audience is made up of plants… which tends to be shorthand for people who have opinions they disagree with. Instead, here is a cross section of occupations from this week’s show, all selected to deliver balance across politics, gender and ethnicity: an engineer, a security guard, a teacher, a nurse – in other words, a cross-section of ordinary life.
READ MORE: Poll: Gap between SNP and Reform UK narrows, but nationalists on track to win in Scotland
Brexit spotting and stone cold fury
No programme on TV in Scotland offers the same insight into what people are thinking. Ten years ago the team working on our sister show Question Time spotted something coming – Brexit. While Westminster politicians vowed it couldn’t and wouldn’t happen, the mood of audiences in places like Grimsby, Carlisle and Weston Super Mare told the production team something different. The rest is history.
Watch Debate Night and you can sense the tectonic plates of national opinion moving. Stone cold fury with Boris Johnson’s government has now shifted to constant grumbling about the SNP’s record in power and a sense that Keir Starmer has really lost the dressing room. And something else.
Not so long ago we had no people in the audience saying they’d be voting for Reform. Now the applications roll in without fail every single week.
Democracy in action is a fascinating thing to watch. On a wet Wednesday evening in Kelso in the midst of the Holyrood cycle, it can be a struggle to persuade politicians to come on the show. Some are washing their hair. Others judging a local flower show… even though it took place the previous weekend.
Then along comes an election and suddenly everybody wants to be on the programme at the same time. It’s funny how a job being on the line concentrates hearts and minds. Plus what the public thinks has never been more important.
Winds of change
Every political party uses focus groups to check policies and ideas but for the smartest, Debate Night is a free opportunity every week to test audience reactions against political opponents. To see what flies and what sinks and to adjust course accordingly.
With less than 100 days to go, much is at stake. Can the SNP win a record fifth term in power, what impact can Reform have north of the Border, what will that mean for the Conservatives and can the level of frustration with the other parties give the Lib Dems and the Scottish Greens a real boost?
All will become clear after we vote on May 7 but if you want to know where the winds of change are blowing, join me for Debate Night every Wednesday evening.
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