Surprise view of Yes campaigner
‘NO REFERENDUM in the next two years and I’m sceptical if we should really want one’ – that was the message from a pro-independence campaigner who visited Lochaber last week, writes Monica Gibson.
Robin McAlpine is the founder of the Common Weal, a group with the aim of achieving a Scotland of social and economic equality and environmental sustainability.
Mr McAlpine travelled to Fort William on Friday September 16 and held a discussion in Aye2Aye to gauge how people now feel about independence ahead of the two-year anniversary of the referendum.
He expressed frustration with the breakdown in communication since the vote and said he believes there is no clear network for interested parties to share views.
He added: ‘Westminster has a strong hand in saying no following the Brexit vote. From their point of view, it would really just heap crisis on crisis.’
The CommonSpace columnist said he thinks the Yes campaigners should be more focused on looking inwards and creating a plan before talking outwards.
He believes the three most important factors moving forward are ‘strategy, policy and movement’, and said that if there is to be a second referendum it doesn’t necessarily have to be tackled in the same manner as two years ago.
Mr McAlpine added: ‘Bluffing is not the way to do this. We need to convince people that we have a plan. People don’t need to read reams of white papers about every single detail of what independence would actually mean. They just need to absorb the sense that things are being done correctly.’
Mr McAlpine also spoke about the need to accept that being Scottish is being different to others.
He said: ‘ We speak differently, we sound different and we think differently – and that’s okay. We need to get rid of the idea that it’s embarrassing or cringey to be a Scot. If anything, the 2014 campaign could have been doing with being a wee bit more Scottish.’
During the weekend the ‘indy pedlars’ also embarked on a 120-mile cycle over three days – from Dunoon, to Inveraray, Oban and Fort William – to promote Scottish independence.
The three men finished the challenge in Cameron Square on Sunday where they were welcomed by supporters.