IMAGINE waking up on St Andrew’s Day and looking out of your window to see a carpet of reminders that Scotland could soon be an independent country.
That’s the ambitious idea behind a project to place tens of thousands of Yes Stones in prominent and not-so-prominent places across the country on November 30.
Since the artist Alison Rollo began the phenomenon, The National has charted the explosive growth in distribution of Yes Stones – stones of any size painted with a Yes message, usually but not always on a blue Saltire background. Acrylic paint and a coat of varnish do the job best, apparently.
Organised and co-ordinated through the Yes Stones Facebook group, the St Andrew’s Day “carpet” is the brainchild of Iain McGlade, organiser of the Yes Glasgow and West Central Scotland umbrella group. His idea is simple: on the evening of November 29, activists will put Yes Stones in public places – not private property – where they can be seen first thing on St Andrew’s Day.
The Yes Stones Facebook group has around 5400 members and McGlade is hoping that each one of them will be able to produce 100 stones each in time for the “carpet” – an ambitious target of over 500,000 stones, but given the attendance at Saturday’s All Under One Banner march and rally in Edinburgh, it seems perfectly feasible.
McGlade told The National: “I have made a few Yes Stones of my own, even though I am artistically inept. I had picked up around 200 stones on a wee trip to the seaside and that gave me an idea.
“I spoke to the Yes Stones group at the Perth march and rally and explained the idea to Alison Brown who is the administrator of the Yes Stones Facebook page. She thought it was a great idea and suggested St Andrew’s Day would be the best day to do it.
“We are suggesting that those who can should make and get together 100 Yes Stones and distribute them in their communities on the night of November 29.
“I have already heard from plenty of Yes groups across the country with a generally positive response and I can say that we have individuals and groups who are committed to doing this.”
The Yes groups involved include those based in East Ayrshire, Dundee, Angus, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen, while McGlade is co-ordinating the effort in Glasgow.
He said: “I already have 400 stones prepared, but if people just want to do a few then that’s great – it’s the message that matters on the day.
“People have been putting different messages on their stones. If you have Polish people locally, for instance, you could perhaps put a message in their language. It’s vital that we be positive.”
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