YES Edinburgh were out and about in Drylaw last weekend

A a series of events planned by Yes Edinburgh started off last weekend. These sessions involve activists from all areas of the city joining together to get the Yes Scotland message out and gauge public opinion.

Nearly 150 volunteers descended upon Drylaw to join in with all sorts of tasks from speaking with residents, to delivery of the Yes Scotland newpaper, to chatting with passers by who approached the street hub.

To date the capital has not seen such a show of commitment from either of the referendum activity groups. Both sides have had days of activity and have held some high profile talks, with Yes Edinburgh being far more visual and active, but on this scale it is a step up again.

It was quite a sight to behold, driving up to the meeting point and seeing the amount of people in Yes regalia. In addition to the arguments this is what I believe will win us the referendum for Yes – the volunteers and the work on the ground. The official figure was 122 but many people were in pairs where only one approached to check in. What an outstanding show of support for Yes Edinburgh.

No matter the scaremongering tactics that No adopt, they cannot gather this level of support to promote their viewpoint. These volunteers are the people who get the positive message out in every walk of life – on the doorsteps, schools playgrounds, at home even, in work, at the pub, the rugby or football, wherever the conversation arises. Due to demand, in Yes Edinburgh Southern we called a meeting at short notice a fortnight ago – 59 new activists turned out. That’s fantastic given this was the fourth event of it’s kind where existing volunteers had already attended. I have new volunteers contacting me daily to help just now. Things are moving on.

The response on the doors is shifting too, we are seeing far more ’undecideds’ that were previously against independence. Equally previously ’undecideds’ are now favouring Yes. This will continue as the No myths are debunked and people see through them. The big objection to the No campaign seems to be the public are getting fed up with being treated as if they are daft. In fact Saturday’s most convinced No voter was a basing her vote on the understanding that she believes Westminster has stripped every asset and penny from Scotland in order to leave us no option but to stay attached! That is a person simply bullied into submission. The lady was completely anti-Westminster but yet felt we’d been abused for so long there was nothing left to now gain our independence and stand on our own two feet. We’ll get her some more positive factual information and hopefully she’ll understand the wealth is still here but that is not the starting point for healthy debate on the subject.

There are numerous Yes events from local to city-wide action days, there are many evenings set up for the undecideds in the coming weeks. We are fortunate enough to have Angela Constance MSP, Minister for Youth Employment and Michelle Thomson, MD of Business for Scotland speaking at a business lunch in March – this is the standard of positive articulate message that is getting out there to businesses now too. It’s a strong message on the economy too and what independence will mean to your family and business. Kenny MacAskill MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Colin Fox and Robin McAlpine speak in Gilmerton this month on issues of welfare and the Common Weal. These are strong positive cases for independence that will all show people the alternative option to Westminster’s cry for ’austerity and beyond’ whoever is in power.

(Details of these and more events can be found at http://www.yesscotland.net/events. (In the interests of fairness I tried to identify No events in Edinburgh but could find no details of any on their website.) (Yes there are Neil – they are on this page here Ed.)

In Yes Edinburgh, I feel we have the momentum now, on the basis of the showing in Drylaw at the weekend it seems we also have a growing collective of people to keep that going all the way to September 18th, 2014.

This is a contributed article. You are invited to submit your views on independence for Scotland (or not!) by clicking here.

Submitted by Neil Hay