deeedeee and Roseformeplease
What a weird coincidence that this quote should come up -- I was at the event where it was made.
I was quite disconcerted and worried by how deeply, deeply jaded and critical he was of the British state and everything it does. One would expect, after all, that a former ambassador would know what he was talking about. 
It seemed he was privy to proof that the government had done some truly awful things during that the general public were not aware of. Of course to some extent this isn't surprising (he mentioned that the whole knowing that there were no WOMD going onto the Iraq war was true, which I think was widely suspected anyway), but it was quite chilling to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.
His wider view was that the system is utterly corrupt and broken and that (after the failure to get voting reform in 2011), Scottish independence is the only option. He stated that there is a closed elite made up of politicians, media moguls, et al, who will always close ranks in their own interests - indeed he gave the example of the AV referendum in which the media reporting was hugely biased towards the 'no reform' side, because AV would have actually resulted in a fair voting system in which one of the main two parties couldn't always be guaranteed significant power.
Personally, I was very uncomfortable with his statement that it is not possible to be a No voter and a decent person. I think that would be true if someone recognised all of the above injustices in the way he did and still voted "No", but most people aren't coming at the decision with that collection of life experiences and impressions. I think that for the very most part all of us are just trying to make the decision that genuinely accords with our own convictions, which is precisely why I've been so keen to maintain this dialogue here - because I think we are all genuine people trying to work towards a decision, and I'm intrigued by the different ways we reach different decisions.
That said, I did agree with a slightly gentler point that he made, which is that he had difficulties with the claim made some months ago that if either campaign could prove people would be £500 better/worse off a year in the case of independence, that side would win. He said he thought people should be looking beyond their own individual concerns to the wider interests, which I concur with. I've encountered a number of academics saying that their own students people should vote No because of the uncertainty surrounding research funding. Although I'm fairly confident research funding will be fine, I would also vote Yes even if it wouldn't be (and this would affect my life a great deal), because I think a Yes vote could improve the lives of those a heck of a lot less privileged than those living and working in the ivory towers.