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THE BBC, Trident, socialism, republicanism, universal benefits, Team GB and globalisation ... for an event focused on identity and independence, the Sunday Herald debate at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow on Thursday night certainly covered a lot of ground.
The idea behind our series of debates is to provide an arena to discuss the issues surrounding independence free of the constraints and combative culture of mainstream party politics, which is why we have so far avoided inviting MPS and MSPs to take part. And to a large extent we succeeded in that aim. It was a civilised evening, with few raised voices and a welcome absence of the politicians' habit of shouting down opponents.
Only panellist Brian Wilson, a former Labour MP, faced a genuinely angry reaction - when he spoke out in favour of student tuition fees and against universal social benefits.
To his credit, Wilson refused to dilute his opinions for an easy...