PAUL Kavanagh, aka The Wee Ginger Dug, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to ensure the dug keeps barking for at least one more year.
A £10,000 target has been set to raise funds for the blog. Donations have flown in, with almost £7,000 already pledged by generous readers of his blog.
Kavanagh has published six books since the 2014 independence referendum but has no plans to do so this year.
Instead, the blogger, who averages a thousand words per piece, is asking his followers for a helping hand.
“If I wanted to be rich I’d be writing about boy wizards – not Scottish independence,” he told The National. The money will allow Kavanagh to continue producing the blog alongside regular visits to regional groups in Scotland.
Such events serve to “relaunch and re-energise their own movements,” he explained.
According to a traffic ranking website, The Wee Ginger Dug blog is the fourteenth most-read politics blog in the UK. Since making his first blog post, Kavanagh believes he has published close to two million words online.
He said: “In any campaign you need hard facts and analysis but I’ve always thought human beings are an emotional species and you need to speak to that.
“That’s what I do in the blog, I look for an emotional response. I want people to laugh, cry, get angry and be happy – I’m told that’s why people keep coming to read the blog.”
Kavanagh believes that aside from writing, Yes voters must continue to campaign all over Scotland.
“As well as the National Roadshow events I go and speak to lots of local groups all over Scotland.
“I think it’s really vital that the grassroots element of the Yes campaign is energised and enthused.
“To make a case for independence we need an active and engaged support base and to maintain it, and it’s that I really see myself working on.”
Click here to donate to the crowdfunder.
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