The National:

ONE of the most memorable moments of last night’s BBC Leaders Debate didn’t come from any of the candidates.

It was Colin the engineer who made waves with a surprise intervention, in which he told the Unionist party leaders they’re “nothing more than just imperialists wanting to rule, just like in the last century”.

The Scottish Greens voter somehow managed to evade the BBC’s screening process to get that one in.

It was quite the moment, given the prior questions were all variations of anti-independence classics such as “how can we hold a referendum in the middle of a pandemic”, even though Nicola Sturgeon made clear in her opening remarks that she has no such intention.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon makes case for independence at BBC leaders' debate

After several Unionist-friendly questions, Colin stepped in.

“Hi there. I wouldn’t want anyone on the panel there to think that the audience is against – they’re not interested in constitutional issues. Because we certainly are.

“There’s lots of pejorative terms. You call us nationalists, I’d say we’re interested in self-determination.

“You’re Unionists. You’re nothing more than just imperialists wanting to rule just like in the last century you want to rule from London.

“The three Westminster parties, you’re not even any more than branch offices in Scotland. You take your orders from Westminster.”

At this point moderator Sarah Smith cut in. “Hold on, we need to keep this respectful,” she told him.

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The BBC Scotland editor asked Colin if he would be voting for the Alba Party on the list at the upcoming election.

“Eh, no,” he replied. “I’m not. I’m also an engineer. I will be voting Green, my second vote, because the climate is massively important.”

That was it from Colin and Smith swiftly moved onto other matters. Unsurprisingly online, chat about Colin's contribution continued for some time.

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