AS Scotland’s political landscape changes and evolves, so too has the Yes2 movement with a relaunch today in The National. The group has rebranded and will now be known as aYe Scotland with an aim to be all-encompassing and to embrace those who voted No in the last independence referendum. Here John McHarg, aYe Scotland co-leader explains the reasons behind the move.
WITH the remarkable pace of change now within politics in the UK and our new place as core members within the Scottish Independence Convention (SIC), we have been addressing the issues now facing us ahead of this important part of Scotland’s history. We can’t get it wrong this time as Tory disaster would ensue for possibly decades to come and we have had far too much already. Yes2 has been pivotal in keeping and building a strong grassroots presence along with other independence groups but things are dramatically different now. Brexit and #ScotRef are both approaching at a rate we have to keep up with.
To move forward, our number one priority is to persuade and embrace those who voted No and are looking for the answers to vote Yes. Therefore, after much deliberation and reasoning, we are rebranding and transitioning from Yes2 to aYe Scotland.
Our campaign to maintain an independence grassroots was initiated as Yes2 – but now we need to go beyond simply maintaining and include as many people as we can to allow them to take ownership of something new that they can identify with. And what is more Scottish than the word Aye? It’s a word we all use, all the time.
Along with a new and all-inclusive identity we are delighted to announce a change in the management of this Campaign group with the addition of Chris Graham (from Yes Bikers), a former No voter who, along with the rest of the team at Yes Bikers, has become very well respected and is now an integral part of the Independence movement. Maz Hastings is also stepping up to the plate. A passionate and tireless advocate of Scottish independence, Maz set up Yes2 Airdrie and Shotts and accepted the request to lead our organistation with no hesitation. We are in discussions with other groups to galvanise strong collaborations and we feel that women especially should be taking the lead in every aspect of this movement.
Our new logo – a grassroots seedling growing into the Y of aYe – signals growth in terms of an all-embracing ethos – encompassing both camps, whether Yes or No.
As well as working and changing within the movement we are delighted to be working with the best and most honest newspaper in our wee country.
The National have invited us to with them and that means we all have more say. We have an average weekly reach on our social media throughout the UK of approximately 900,000 people. At times we have reached up to 3,000,000 and we are happy to open this up to The National so they can expand even further.
Along with our identity change we will soon be launching a membership website and blog page allowing us all to become members of a huge campaign group, contributing to and receiving information, events organising and merchandise.
A mutual identity for Yes and No voters is required to move forward.
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