Five things we learned from the SNP leaders' debate

The three candidates to replace Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister of Scotland have taken part in the final TV debate of the campaign.

How did Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf approach the live TV event, and what does it tell us about how the contest will play out?

This was the only TV debate of the campaign to feature a live studio audience. Hustings have taken place in front of party members, but those have been altogether cosier in-house affairs.

This was where the candidates had to bump up against the general public for the first time, and thus a fascinating chance to see if the themes their campaigns have been based on chime with the priorities of the wider populace.

Health and the cost of living are obvious topics for all, but this debate featured perhaps the most discussion there has been about education in the contest to date - still all of about five minutes.

And seeing how the audience reacted to the pitch from each candidate was almost as enlightening as the policies themselves.

There was applause for the candidates - but also some sharp interventions from punters less than impressed by their efforts.

It was a reminder that whoever wins this contest will need to be the first minister for the whole country.

They only need to win over SNP members to get the job - they will need to convince the nation at large to keep it.

This was, broadly, a debate focused on policy rather than personality - something summed up when Humza Yousaf said he was "not going to sit here and slag off colleagues in government".

In previous debates, the candidates rarely missed an opportunity to kick lumps out of each other, but the cross-examination here was notably less fiery.

That may be in part because yellow-on-yellow attacks are greeted with glee by opposition parties, but it is also a mark of how the candidates have evolved their approach.

Humza Yousaf may have been braced for another broadside from Kate Forbes, but instead was greeted by policy-laden questions which promoted the finance secretary's own strengths.

Ash Regan used her questions to Mr Yousaf to bring up gender reform - again, something she sees as a strength of her own campaign.

Mr Yousaf was actually ticked off by Stephen Jardine for talking about his own policies at length when he was meant to be questioning Ms Forbes.

This may be because of the fear that mud thrown now could still be stuck on when future elections roll around.

But it may also be because this race uses a single transferable vote system - and in a tight contest, second-preference votes could turn out to be crucial.

The candidates might have calculated that it is profitable to make friends than to try to knock out opponents entirely.

Things are going to change, regardless of who wins this contest.

Perhaps that's obvious - none of the candidates are Nicola Sturgeon. But they have all worked for her, only to have developed some concerns about her policies since she decided to resign.

Kate Forbes has pitched herself as the change candidate, but even so it is striking to hear the sitting finance secretary talking about a need to "reset the relationship with business".

Ash Regan said the government she had resigned from "isn't in touch with the priorities of people and it seems like the government isn't listening", and talked about ending the partnership deal with the Greens.

Even Humza Yousaf, who has accepted the mantle of continuity candidate, wants to see changes to the deposit return scheme and said the delays to ferry projects were "unacceptable".

One audience member called out the "lack of accountability" on the part of government ministers who have been in post for years, now calling for a change of direction.

After a long run of stability under Nicola Sturgeon and indeed Alex Salmond before her, it feels like the direction of the Scottish government is up in the air for the first time in 15 years.

All three leadership candidates said they could see Scotland being independent within five years.

Frankly in order to lead the SNP, they probably need to say that. There may not be much appetite among the membership for pumping the brakes on the campaign now.

But the three of them still have quite different ideas about how to get there.

Ash Regan stands apart from Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes in urgency, bringing up independence in response to quite a few other questions.

Her idea of a "voter empowerment mechanism" essentially bakes the de-facto referendum into every election, for all that question marks hung over that approach.

Humza Yousaf, meanwhile, said the party should not be "obsessing" about process, saying that a surge of grassroots support will answer any and all questions. It sounds a lot like Nicola Sturgeon's approach of a few years ago, when she talked about not having a "magic wand" to bring about a referendum overnight.

And Kate Forbes was the most explicit in pitching herself as the candidate who can reach out to No voters - perhaps hoping that if she appears more electable with the broader electorate, that will be appealing to the SNP members who have a vote here.

Perhaps because it was taking part in front of a mixed audience rather than one of SNP devotees, it was striking that this debate ultimately focused more on winning people round to the "why" of independence, rather than the knotty question of "how".

Who are the SNP candidates?

When Nicola Sturgeon announced she was stepping down, plenty of names were thrown around as potential successors.

Perhaps not many would have predicted that the final three would be Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan.

But watching this debate, they certainly provide a broad choice for the SNP membership in both style and substance.

The field includes sitting cabinet ministers who have represented almost every top job in government, but also a minister who quit in protest over policy.

One represents the pro-business tribe within the party, another a group focused on social justice, and the other a group impatient for action on independence.

There are competing promises of change and of continuity - anything from tinkering around the edges of Nicola Sturgeon's legacy to tearing it up entirely.

Which of these campaigns wins out will be a fascinating test of where the SNP membership stands in 2023 - because the three candidates clearly have quite a different view of it.