Are rank and file indyref campaigners best served by marches?

Pro-independence rallies may be gaining popularity, but it is hard to assess their impact, writes Martyn Mclaughlin

One of the most widely circulated photographs from the weekend’s All Under One Banner (AUOB) march was typical of the striking imagery conjured up by the movement.

Its latest mobilisation of Scottish independence supporters transformed busy Glasgow thoroughfares into mobile art installations, with tens of thousands of people brandishing Saltires.

The mass display of nationalist iconography was visually striking, although some observers were more beguiled by its power than others. “It is inconceivable that this level of support will not lead to political change,” noted Paul Monaghan, the former SNP MP, on Twitter alongside a photo of the event.

It was an observation which, in part, explained why the people of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross decided it was time to be represented by someone with sharper critical faculties than the good doctor.

So too, it betrayed perhaps the most perilous enemies facing the independence cause – not Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid, but complacency and self-regard.

In Mr Monaghan’s defence, no one should deny or downplay the intoxicating experience of assembling to march. There is a rare, primal thrill to be found in surging forward en masse – a droplet in a sea of people – to champion a cherished cause. When that cause happens to be political, such demonstrations normalise the issues in play, and empower the participants.

The pace quickens. Voices grow louder – their sheer numbers confer power on the chants and songs. Or at least, that is how it seems from inside the muggy delirium of the fray.

Pierce it and gnawing questions emerge, especially when the crowd’s concern lies with Scotland’s independence.

Some questions are unresolved. Others have barely been asked at all. Chief among them is whether the marches are furthering the movement.

Whenever an AUOB march has been held of late, I cannot help but be reminded of Elvis Presley’s reply when quizzed on his global fame. “Since the beginning, it was just the same,” he mused. “The only difference, the crowds are bigger now.”

So it is with the AUOB events – genial gatherings, shot through with good humour, imaginative placards, and rousing spirits.

Take the testimony of Sandra White, the long-serving Glasgow MSP and a veteran attendee at proindependence demonstrations. Last year, she reflected on how she met a woman from London who travelled north to march on her crutches.

The gatherings, reasoned Ms White, gave such people a “sense of purpose, pride, and likemindedness”. Which, for the folk involved, is heartening. But how does revelling in a false consensus hasten political change?

As a movement with a defined, unifying purpose – “to raise the profile of the need of an independent Scotland” – has AUOB evolved since it was inaugurated in the weeks after the 2014 referendum?

Yes, its marches have prospered in scale and frequency, but its sole indicator of success seems to be crowd sizes – a blunt measure of a protest’s effectiveness, and one which does not pass muster as a mechanism of progress.

Leaving aside some of the more fanciful attendance figures that have been bandied around, only the most blinkered unionist would deny there has been an upsurge in partic