THERE is now one week left to cast your vote in our Sunday National Yessay competition!
You can find all 20 of our shortlisted essays on why Scotland should be independent – aimed at undecided voters – in the dedicated section of our website at thenational.scot/community/yessays.
Digital subscribers can cast their vote through a form you’ll find linked in each article, and print subscribers can get in touch to do the same by sending an email to stewart.ward@thenational.scot.
If you’re unable to access the essays for some reason on our website, again, just contact that email. That inbox is also open to ideas for future competitions that you think we could run to help the Yes movement.
Voting will shut at 11:59pm on Sunday, August 8.
We’ve already had some great suggestions coming in, and once we’ve wrapped this one up, we’re excited to get to work on more.
Our judges are still hard at working deliberating on the 20 shortlisted Yessays.
The trio faced with the tough task are Sunday National editor Roxanne Sorooshian, National columnist, author and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch and University of Glasgow professor of Scottish literature Alan Riach.
National editor Callum Baird said: “While I’m not on the judging panel for this particular contest, I’ve been casting my eye over some of the entries.
“On our letters pages and at roadshows I’ve seen our readers taking on the big topics of independence for years now – but they’ve transitioned those to the essay format so excellently.
“I hope as many people as possible can cast their votes. We want our readers to be involved in the process.”
As mentioned previously, we also have plans to publish more of the entries – as we think there were many more that’d be of use and that are well worth reading.
And good luck to our entrants, once again!
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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