ANTI-independence group Scotland In Union have boasted of dominating the nation’s letter pages, after 5000 of their missives were printed in the country’s newspapers in less than three years.
The email between Scotland In Union supporters, leaked to the Wings over Scotland site, shows the group are co-ordinating a cabal of at least 12 people who frequently put pen to paper to attack independence and the SNP.
And it’s effective. According to the email, written by prominent Scotland in Union supporter Martin Redfern, by the October of this year, the group had 1985 letters published, compared to 1929 last year.
This he adds, means the group have now had more than 5000 letters printed since they started keeping records in March 2015.
By adding the readers of each newspaper for each edition that they appear in, Redfern says this means the group’s “circulation” is 96m.
But in the email exchange, Alastair Cameron, the founder of Scotland in Union, warns against people advertising the “existence of the group”.
“It can be mentioned verbally, in safe environment, that some people share letters/encourage each others, but anything more risks editors discriminating, nationalists reacting and this diverse group being portrayed as a monolithic campaign.”
He adds that those involved will have to keep on writing for the cause rather than for any sense of glory: “We all know what fantastic results people are having, but your praises will have to remain unsung.”
It’s not unusual for a political movement to organise a letter-writing campaign in a bid to spread their message — most parties will have at some point done something similar — what is exceptional is the sheer amount of correspondence being sent out by Scotland In Union, and the unwillingness to be identified as part of the group.
SNP councillor Mhairi Hunter tweeted that one way independence supporters should respond is to write more letters: “It’s possible Unionists are able to run letter writing campaigns and dominate letters pages in newspapers because Yessers don’t write as many letters.
"That’s probably a reflection of the demographics of both campaigns - but people read newspapers, so it does matter.
“I’m guilty of this myself, it almost becomes second nature to tweet your response to something you disagree with in the newspaper rather than writing a letter.
“But it’s not that hard to send a letter and if you keep it short and to the point all the better.”
Scotland in Union’s year hasn’t been completely rosy. A schism in the anti-independence organisation saw members leave to start up their own group. The new group, Unity UK, is virulently anti-independence and, unlike Scotland in Union, strongly pro-Brexit.
Formed by Scotland in Union’s development manager, and former Tory and Labour councillor David Clews, and social media co-ordinator, Kyle Coats, Unity UK launched in Glasgow earlier this month.
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