IN the last decade since the 2014 independence referendum, activists across Scotland have been the ones to keep the independence message in the public eye.
To mark the 10-year anniversary, we’ve decided to honour five activists who represent the movement through their continuous hard work, determination and professionalism.
Each one brings different skills to the table, but one thing in common is their ability to use their passion to elevate countless others around them.
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The Sunday National thanks each and every activist who has knocked a door, manned a Yes hub, joined a march, debated with friends and family, and shared the message of independence in person or online.
We are much more of a movement than this moment, and we feel these five individuals embody this.
Dr Willie Wilson
Pharmacy owner, retired academic and co-founder of NHSforYES, Wilson also co-founded the Scottish Independence Foundation (SIF).
Since its inception in 2018, it has provided funding of over £300,000 to countless groups and events throughout Scotland.
If you can think of a project or initiative, it has likely received funding from the SIF.
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Recipients have included (in no particular order) the Nation films by Lesley Riddoch, Believe in Scotland, Common Weal, All Under One Banner, Yes for EU, Voices for Scotland, Scotland and Independence booklet, Scotonomics, Saor Alba Pipes and Drums, Yes groups from Caithness to Galloway and much else.
Born in Glasgow, his father was an activist and election agent for the SNP in Camlachie in the 1930s. He went on to Hutchesons’ Grammar School and studied pharmacology, later becoming a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
He shared Wilson and he “felt frustrated” and after one meeting of a Yes group, Willie said to Grant: “We could do much better.”
“We set up SIF to raise money and distribute it to individuals and groups within the Yes movement,” Grant explained.
“He thought we could raise £100,000 in six months and we did. Money led to films on Nordic countries, marches, rallies, billboards, a film on the 2014 referendum, a pipe band, various cultural events, kit for Yes groups the length and breadth of the country and much more – more than £300,000 in six years.”
He added: “Willie has been the loyalist of friends, an inspiring leader and the staunchest of supporters of the independence movement and the SNP. Like many of us, he grew frustrated at times with the glacial progress towards independence post 2014, but he has stuck with the party.”
At the creation of NHSforYes, Wilson said: “Unless we seize the opportunity that a Yes vote offers, it is very likely that Scotland, against our will, could be forced down the route of privatisation and commercialisation of our public health service, as is happening right now in England and Wales.
“Only independence can protect Scotland’s health service from Westminster spending cuts and the damaging impact of the privatisation now taking hold south of the Border.”
Councillor Simita Kumar
Kumar became a member in 2020, councillor in 2022 and leader of the SNP group in Edinburgh in 2024. This meteoric rise has not gone unnoticed.
Along the way, she has smashed an overdue stat by being the first person from an ethnic minority to lead a political group on one of Scotland’s biggest councils.
Kumar emigrated from Fiji with her family as a young teen and realised she had formed a strong allegiance to Scotland when she went to study in Manchester and found that England truly felt like a foreign country.
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One of her first votes as leader was to attempt to remove the Tories from the Labour-Tory-LibDem coalition administration. She said it shocked her that Labour could even think about ruling in coalition with the Tories.
In the past month, she launched a bid to lead Edinburgh City Council, after Cammy Day was suspended by Labour and resigned as council leader amid claims he sent sexual messages to Ukrainian refugees.
Although the vote saw Labour cling onto a minority administration by 32 votes to 28, as Unionist parties opted to continue propping them up over supporting an SNP/Green bid for leadership, Kumar is not halting in holding the parties to account.
David Spacey
Spacey, who is from Wales and England, moved to Edinburgh in 1998 for work and managed exports from Scotland to” virtually every corner of the world, seeing and understanding at first-hand how doing business within the single market and customs union was so much easier than trading further afield”.
Spacey went on to become a key member of Yes for EU and is the chief steward for events organised by Believe in Scotland.
A true professional, events he takes lead on are second to none, and I personally had the pleasure of interviewing him alongside activists Jaqui Jenson and Sharon Trish. I could have spoken to all three of them for hours.
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Spacey lived in the Netherlands in 2014 so could not vote.
He has said he would have likely voted No, adding: “Partly because I do believe we are all better when we work together, but I was also convinced that Scotland’s place in the EU could not be regained after independence against the wishes of the ‘former UK’.
“Even so I was a bit taken aback the morning after the vote to watch Cameron’s English Votes for English Laws speech on TV and over the longer term was dismayed to see the unravelling of the Vow. It got me thinking.
“However, it was the Brexit referendum in 2016, without a clear proposition, with illegal dark money funding via a loophole in Northern Ireland electoral law, the theft of almost all social media account profiles in the UK, the illegal collaboration between campaign organisations and the endless lies that made me realise Scotland must make its own way and work with like-minded democratic neighbours.”
Spacey continues working within several groups.
Marlene Halliday and Fiona McGregor
We could have included these two separately but anyone who knows them knows they are often together at events, or on our screens, streaming and presenting their show Scottish Independence Podcasts.
Halliday and McGregor are co-hosts who document dozens of events each year. From the Budget to Nato, poetry nights to land regeneration, independence strategy to currency, they have a video for everything.
While away travelling this year, I tried my hardest to keep up with the movement. Scottish Independence Podcasters alongside Independence Live ran by Kevin Gibney were my go-to resources (with The National, of course), never missing a beat.
The pair stream across YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, and Podbean.
On December 31, their 12 podcasts for Christmas goes live so don’t miss it!
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