THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

MAKE no mistake, however much we talk about the “progress” the indy side has made, the challenge before them is monumental.

If achieving Scottish independence is climbing Everest then achieving the same in Wales is like doing it with no oxygen when half of your Sherpa guides don’t actually want you to get to the top. To do it they the indy movement need to move past some fairly sizeable growing pains they have experienced and learn lessons from Scotland.

Let’s look at the growing pains first. Despite some substantial achievements, YesCymru has been, by its own admission, a very amateur organisation in terms of administration.

“We’ve still got an awful lot of historic issues with data, management and membership” said chief executive Gwern Gwynfil.

“Some people have been counted as members, even though they haven’t paid their subscription.

“We’ve just found a few more of those, particularly in the over-65, and student brackets.

“It was just poor maintenance, all of which is being resolved and being resolved quite quickly. And the next step for us really is to get all the lapsed members, many of whom still aren’t aware that they’re lapsed members because they’re not automatically renewing, getting back on board while continuing to add new members.”

The party previously lost thousands of members after an “admin error”. Despite regularly publishing its membership figures when it was growing rapidly, Mr Gwynfil has repeatedly refused to say the total membership.

He would, however, say it was “adding brand new members at the rate of about 100 a month”.

Not bad, but hardly the things mass movements are made of, especially given they have been unsure how many are leaving through the back door.

The organisation, which though the largest is not the only independence group in Wales, has acknowledged the need for becoming more professional.