Edinburgh International Book Festival: Andrew Marr

This appearance by one of the BBC’s finest journalists is among the most anticipated of this year’s Book Festival. This is after all Andrew Marr’s first public event since he suffered a stroke in January, and audience members inspect his fragile mobility as he carefully walks to his seat in the main theatre, aided by a walking stick. He is strikingly frail, but when he takes his seat and starts to speak he becomes familiar again.

As Scotland’s independence referendum draws closer, The Battle for Scotland is more relevant now than it was twenty years ago when Marr originally wrote the book, while working for the “home-ruled paper” The Scotsman. And as the book has aged, it has become current affairs.

The ‘well to do’ audience, which include Marr’s mother, listen intently as he explains that one of the key messages of the book is that Yes or No matters much less than the kind of Scotland that will emerge. He says: “I hear no debate or discussion about education, inward investment and unequal and unfair ownership of land in Scotland.”

“I hear no debate or discussion about education, inward investment and unequal and unfair ownership of land in Scotland” – Andrew Marr

Nonetheless, Marr proclaims himself a fan of our First Minister, who is fighting for independence, describing him as a “political genius”. He urges onlookers not to write off Alex Salmond who he has known “since he was thin and an oil economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland.” Marr is convinced his old friend has a masterplan for next year – one he still has to unveil in order to change the view of those who are undecided.

The BBC’s Europe Editor Gavin Hewitt, who chairs this session, asks Marr what he thinks a patriotic Scotsman is. His answer? “Somebody who loves Scotland deeply, and I do, and somebody who knows Scotland’s history and literature.” Marr apologises for sounding increasingly English after he admits he would opt for a Scottish passport, as being Scottish is his identity.

Glasgow-born Marr who now lives in London finds it “almost funny” that the ‘Scottish Question’ is hardly discussed down south, which, in his view, is why people in England don’t really understand what’s going on. If independence happens then Marr predicts a big change in party politics. He believes life would go on normally in most places, but for journalists and politicians life would change entirely.

Marr reveals his theory that Scotland needs to get back to a first class education-for-all, and reclaim the high standard of Universities last seen during the Enlightenment. The education system needs to be looked at in order to make a well-informed decision and Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen need to offer tougher courses with a focus on philosophy, “which teaches you to think.”

You can’t complain if you don’t vote, Marr insisted. “And you can’t vote if you don’t know a bit of your history,” he argues, cleverly pointing at the revised edition of The Battle for Scotland.