How BBC Scotland's Debate Night has revealed the big shifts in public opinion over last six years

On Wednesday night MPs and MSPs gathered in Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms to mark six years of the political discussion show I host on BBC Scotland. Putting differences aside for one night, the occasion was a chance to reflect on a fraught few years before the bandwagon gets rolling ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections.

The BBC launched Debate Night in the teeth of the Brexit storm, when the wounds left behind by the independence referendum were still raw. Politics was an angry place. The vision for the programme was to provide a calm and reasonable space where voters could speak truth to power.

A lot to say

To that end, we’ve crisscrossed the country from Oban to Aviemore, from Stranraer to Galashiels, visiting communities and helping them be heard. When I meet the audience before the show in draughty school halls or theatre spaces, I often ask them if anyone has previously come to ask questions.

The answer is usually a resounding silence. That is when I know we will have a great programme because people want to be heard… and they have a lot to say.

When we started Debate Night, in February 2019, every edition was dominated by arguments over how to leave the EU or whether we should have another vote. When we did leave at the end of January in 2020, I wondered what would be next.

The answer came a couple of months later in Ayr when I asked if anyone had considered not attending because some virus was in the news. People laughed but a few weeks later we were in lockdown and most of the next year was spent making the show with a virtual audience in an empty studio.

Anger at Tories, SNP and now Labour

By the time we emerged from that, independence was back on the agenda but since then we’ve conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, a drugs emergency, a cost-of-living crisis, a housing emergency and last year’s Labour victory in the general election.

It’s been fascinating to watch how audience opinions have altered. Anger with the Conservatives over Brexit shifted into dissatisfaction with SNP achievements and now it is disappointment with what Labour is delivering.

After five years I have developed a sixth sense of how the politicians will respond to the questions but I have absolutely no clue what the people in front of them will say and that is the real magic of the show.

In 35 years in broadcasting, I’ve never worked on a programme as fascinating as Debate Night. Every show is an absolute rollercoaster – making sure everyone has their say, giving fair weight to all views, trying to work out how much time to spend on each question and finishing when the stopwatch reaches zero.

Over 150 shows, we’ve built up a loyal and committed audience with up to 100,000 people watching every week.

What will we talk about next Wednesday? That is up to the audience but with the race for Holyrood elections already hotting up, I’m proud we’ve created a space beyond the ballot box where people can have their say and where reasoned debate can flourish.