Grassroots push for new campaign on independence
GRASSROOTS activists have launched a new campaign for Scottish independence amid growing frustration over the lack of progress under Nicola Sturgeon.
The cross-party Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) announced a fundraising appeal yesterday for a fresh organisation aimed at driving support for a Yes vote over 50 per cent.
If the appeal is successful, the new body will provide front-foot media handling, strategic support, resources, messaging and the administrative capacity to help persuade No voters.
It will also bypass SNP ministers to develop strategy, undertake public opinion research, and develop messages and campaign materials for the movement.
The announcement comes less than a week after the First Minister downplayed the prospect of a second independence referendum before the 2021 Holyrood election.
Although she said Brexit had strengthened the case for independence, she also said SNP members must wait “impatiently” and show “pragmatism, perseverance and patience”. However, others at last week’s SNP conference wanted a quicker pace, with SNP MP Angus Macneil saying the best chance of independence was “here and now”.
The proposed campaign vehicle is also a tacit repudiation of Yes Scotland, the main outfit used to promote a Yes vote at the 2014 referendum.
Ostensibly cross-party, in reality it was dominated by SNP money and personnel, leading to tensions with the Green and Socialist arms of the Yes movement.
Yes Scotland Ltd remains a mothballed company under the control of an SNP lawyer.
The Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) said funds raised through the Thisisit.scot website would be used to push support for a Yes vote “consistently beyond 50% in the polls”.
It said the new campaign vehicle would help coordinate grassroots activity and liaise with the media, including providing a rebuttal service.
Like Yes Scotland, which needed an £825,000 bail-out from the SNP in 2014, the new organisation is supposed to raise funds and become financially “self-sustaining”.
The SIC is an umbrella body pro-independence groups and parties.