THE Yes movement has come a long way since the announcement in 2012 of the campaign for a Yes vote in the independence referendum held on September 18, 2014.
We all know what happened in that vote and how Project Fear worked to deter people from voting Yes by telling blatant lies – such as the only way to safeguard Scotland’s position in the European Union was to vote No. Or not, as proved to be the case ...
The idea of Better Together was to beat the pro-independence side once and for all and bury the Yes movement for ever. Except things didn’t quite work out that way. Not only is the Yes movement bigger and stronger than ever, it is thriving in places where it never prospered before and among people who have turned to Yes as the only way forward for their country.
Tomorrow we go to the polls to elect a new Scottish parliament, and hopefully one that will have a pro-independence majority, however that is achieved.
From the outset, the Yes DIY page has acknowledged several things –that the Yes movement is bigger than any one party, that it will require long-term work to change a sufficient number of minds to gain a Yes vote in the second referendum, and that the grassroots of the Yes movement need to be nurtured to become a sustainable and successful campaign grouping.
It can be done, it will be done, and after tomorrow’s election is over, the Yes movement will still be here and working for independence, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Here’s a couple of genuine grassroots activities which will play their part in the coming months as indyref2 approaches.
We told you recently about Scotland & Independence, the brilliant booklet written and produced by Yes activists Ian Grant and John Brown.
We have no hesitation in saying that Scotland & Independence will make a big impact on the people it is intended to inform – those who may not know enough about Scotland and its potential. It not only addresses the economic case for independence, but also looks at the historical and cultural aspects of Scots regaining this nation, making a positive case for a renewed Scotland to take its place in the world.
The Yes DIY page can reveal that of the 50,000 initial print run paid for by the Scottish Independence Foundation, in less than a fortnight some 30,000 copies have already been distributed in places as far apart as Dumfries and Galloway and the Highlands.
We promised that The National would make the booklet available to our readers, and on Saturday’s Yes DIY page we will be announcing how that is going to be done – and it will be very good news to all our subscribers and readers.
Another activity has re-emerged in spectacular style: the Hub app and website has recently undergone a huge revamp and has now been publicly released on iOS, Android and the web.
Creator Dave Murchison explains: “A bit of background as to the reason for its existence – the Yes movement is quite fragmented, with blogs, YouTube channels, Soundcloud accounts and Facebook groups dotted around. It all gets a bit hard to keep track of. The Hub collates all of this and puts it into one app so you can quickly find Yes groups in your area or see what livestreams are upcoming, for example. It also has a very handy Fact Check area with articles by The National included.
“It also targets undecided and No voters by pushing pro-independence content further up Google Search rankings to try and get those voters to view pro-indy stuff instead of pro-Union content.
“I am very proud to announce the public release of The Hub v5 for iOS devices, an absolutely huge update that vastly improves many areas of the app.
“The biggest aim for this update was to get information to the user faster than before as well as increasing the amount of information they see on the screen. With the newly designed contextualised areas of the app, users can now see almost seven times more items than previously.
“Each area has been designed to ensure the most relevant information is displayed (eg event/livestream start time, fundraiser totals) and the underlying code has been tweaked to load faster than ever before.”
According to Murchison, The Hub now detects upcoming streams that are prepared on YouTube and adds these to the Livestream area, with a countdown timer for when they go live. “Improved notifications mean you’ll never miss a livestream again,” said Murchison.
He has also carried out a plethora of bug fixes: “I’ve gone through the code and fixed a number of bugs left over from the previous version of the app, such as uploading of avatars and other images, links to other areas not working as expected as well as improving the loading times across each area.”
The link to the website is www.thehub.scot, and the link to get the app is www.thehub.scot/apps
You can find out more about The Hub when Murchison is interviewed on the Independence Live YouTube channel on May 17, at 8pm.
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