FOSIS Scottish Independence Debate: Civilised and a big win for Yes

The debate took place in Glasgow on Sunday evening

People calling for a Yes vote in the forthcoming referendum on Scottish independence celebrated an emphatic victory on Sunday night after a majority of people who attended the Federation of Student Islamic Societies Scotland debate on Scottish independence backed the idea of Scotland becoming independent.

Two polls were held, one before the debate commenced and one after the debate had finished. In the pre-debate poll, out of the people who voted, 52% voted Yes and 41% voted No. 7% were undecided. Then a debate was held for approximately two hours where issues such as the economy, education and immigration were discussed. The panellists who took part in the debate held inside the McCance Building at Strathclyde University in Glasgow were Humza Yousaf MSP, Shabana Naz, Yvonne Ridley and Anas Sarwar MP. Na'eem Raza chaired the debate.

There was a lot of passion in the room and many issues were explored and discussed. I had never attended a debate like this in Glasgow until last night and I have to say I was so impressed with how civil everyone was with one another. Disagreements maybe, at times (but with an issue as fundamentally important as this, anyone would expect differences of opinion), but there was support amongst the panellists and audience for everyone to make their point heard and, if anything, that is something that should be celebrated and commended.

In the final poll, out of all the people who voted after the debate, the Yes side surged to 68% - a gain of 16 points. No dropped to just 28% - a drop of 13 points. The number of people who were still undecided dropped by three points to just 4%. 

A major thank you to FOSIS for putting in all of the effort and time to organise the event and I also have to admit that my attendance there was just out of personal interest and a last minute commitment. I was at a conference in the city centre earlier in the day and only just decided an hour before the debate to come along. An engaging debate and there's no doubt more of those kind of events will be happening before September.