IT was a choice between “indyrefnew” and “newindyref” among Yes supporters on social media after The National revealed the First Minister had told colleagues not to use the term “indyref2”.
Twitter was awash with debate about a preferred new phrase as the old expression went rapidly out of fashion after our story broke.
The switch of phraseology took place after we reported Nicola Sturgeon had asked party allies to refrain from using “indyref2” as it gave the impression a new vote would be a rerun of the September 2014 ballot when, the First Minister argued, the Brexit vote meant the circumstances were completely different.
William MacKenzie tweeted: “The next independence referendum will be on different issues! not a replay. So not #indyref2 #newindyref USE IT GET IT TRENDING!”
Others opted for “indyrefnew”.
One tweeted: “The circumstances for Scotland & our people have changed. This will not be a rerun of indyref – this is a whole new ball game. #Indyrefnew .”
Writing under the name Gilsanquhar, a second noted: “#IndyRefNew #IndyRef2. What’s in a name, as long as we don’t make a hash of it!”
Writing on the indyref2 website, Peter Bell, appeared to be a lone voice by saying he would stick with the old term.
“It is vital that people recognise it as an entirely new vote in dramatically altered circumstances,” he said.
“Nothing about this new referendum is the same as the earlier one. Brexit is only a part of it. It is NOT the ‘trigger’ for #indyref2 (sorry Nicola!). It is merely part of the context within which the new referendum will be held.
“We will continue to call it #indyref2. Not even the First Minister can stop that. But we can do so in full awareness that what we are referring to is, not a re-run of a previous vote, but and entirely new referendum necessitated by drastically altered circumstances.”
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