ON Thursday we launched the new campaign group Voices For Scotland. This was simply the official launch of the organisation and not the start of the campaign. What is most important is that we now exist.

We have been set up as a separate board and limited company by the Scottish Independence Convention to provide that campaigning arm which will complement and support other organisations all aiming to bring about self-determination for Scotland.

For many in the indy movement this has been a long time coming and I, and all the board, salute you for your patience, generosity and hard work in helping to bring this about.

This is what the movement has been asking the Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) for – an umbrella organisation, a gathering place for all the Yes groups and hubs, the indy-supporting groups such as Women For Indy, EU Citizens For Indy, Common Weal and many more, as well as political parties and individual members who all have the same aim.

They want an organisation that is non-party political, with staff to provide a focal point, resource material, campaign ideas and strategy, but most importantly to listen to the movement and allow YOUR ideas and passion to be harnessed.

It has taken too long to get to this point, but at times, as convenor of the SIC, it’s felt like we’ve been herding cats. There are so many groups, opinions, ideas and critics out there that agreeing on how to proceed and provide what the movement is asking for has been a really difficult task.

I have to admit that there have been times over the past four years when I have considered just walking away and thought that trying to do this was an impossible task. What kept me going was the knowledge that this is what Better Together and Scotland In Union wants. They would love to see us argue, squabble and splinter. In 40 years or more of campaigning and activism on the left, I have witnessed that too many times.

We cannot get so caught up in our own egos and self-righteousness that we forget the prize – and that prize is self-determination for Scotland.

What also kept me, and others, going was the continued commitment and enthusiasm from the movement. We in the SIC got the shot in the arm we needed from our first Build conference. We had no money or funding and basically did it to see if there was still that desire and enthusiasm out there to continue campaigning for independence.

With so many people joining the SNP post referendum we feared there was no need for anything else. There was!

In fact, 800 people paid to come to a conference on independence on a Saturday in Glasgow. It was packed. The energy and desire in the room from so many different groups who were not in political parties let us know that the movement was alive, kicking and growing.

Then, again, at the second Build event at the Usher Hall, we saw the same thing. We identified the need and enthusiasm of the movement but the task was then how to harness that and give the movement what it wanted.

So we in the SIC have been listening and discussing and arguing for the best part of two years. There’s been at least one meeting a month with people travelling from all over the country at their own expense (no one to date has ever been paid or even received travel expenses). Members of the council have also attended other meetings and events as well as organised conferences, commissioned research and looked at ways to move forward.

I am aware that many of you reading this will be asking why we need Voices For Scotland (VFS) at all. Thousands of you have been meeting, leafleting, writing, discussing, marching and campaigning for indy for years and years and losing the referendum has not stopped that.

I have been amazed and heartened by the sheer number of groups that have continued to work and meet over these past five years and that is to be commended and welcomed. The grassroots of the indy movement will be what wins the next referendum.

But what has emerged from all our work and feedback is that there is a need for a place to come together to agree strategy, that will listen to the movement but will also find ways to reach those voters out there who are not yet convinced. And we need them to vote for independence or we cannot win this. That’s why we need Voices For Scotland.

We want to win a big majority for indy. We have seen the result of a close vote with Brexit – and we don’t want a 52/48 split. I know there are those who would take this happily, but we believe that at least 60% – and hopefully more – is where we should be aiming, and that means there is a lot of work to do.

It means listening and HEARING the views of people we have disagreed with. Our research shows that the way to move or shift opinions is not by leafleting, arguing or even demonstrating facts. Voters are bombarded with facts from either side and have got to the point that they believe neither.

LIKE many it took me a long time to get over the feelings of hurt that I had with friends who were staunch No voters, but I have had to shift to realise that they voted No for very legitimate and heartfelt reasons. It didn’t mean they didn’t love Scotland – many were more patriotic (in the Braveheart sense) than me. It didn’t mean they were cowards or feart – they simply were not convinced by our arguments. Many stated to me that they wished they felt that they could vote Yes. They felt that a party was going on that they weren’t invited to and that somehow they didn’t count. Constantly being told that their views were wrong did nothing but push them further away.

My friends who voted No are not morons or ignorant but are Scots who live and work here, who have sound political views but who were not convinced by Yes – but they were the first to call me the day after the vote to see if I was OK and who admitted that all they felt was sadness, with no sense of victory at all. They were a million miles away from the bullish, triumphalist voices in Better Together. But they still voted No and we have to listen to them now, regardless of how difficult that may feel at times.

VFS is not a top-down organisation telling the movement what to do next. This is about allowing the indy movement to organise and flourish. If I and many in Yes Scotland learned anything during the 2014 referendum then it was that all the wonderful energy, creativity and hard work was being done by citizens, with people forming their own versions of Yes groups … not because they’d been told to do it by the team at Yes.

But the existence of Yes, for all its flaws, provided the banner to gather under. Our job at Yes was to try to help and support those efforts but also to let people know that all this was going on.

We in the SIC and now Voices For Scotland still believe that this is the only way to proceed.

Through your generosity, our crowdfunder has provided us with enough money to employ our first full-timer, Chris Hegarty. It’s allowed us to get a great amount of research, focus-group activity and testing done and to have the website up and running – and to launch the group and move towards campaigning.

So we are here, we exist. We welcome Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement regarding the referendum and are happy to coexist alongside all the other pro-indy organisations out there, and look forward to sharing information and research among us all to ensure that we’re not duplicating work and wasting precious time and energy.

It’s up to all of us to make it work and to become a vibrant, creative campaigning group, to bring about self-determination for Scotland.