Independence marchers snub Sturgeon’s advice to ‘show not tell’ the voters

INDEPENDENCE campaigners have ignored Nicola Sturgeon’s advice to “show not tell” the merits of self-government by announcing an immediate return to marches after the Covid-19 lockdown ends.

Just 24 hours after the First Minister urged impatient supporters to ca’ canny, the All Under One Banner group said it planned to hold a mass rally in Glasgow.

“The effects of the Union are an extreme health threat that cause significant harm and claim many lives, so we have to balance the harms and march for independence,” it said.

The campaign, which planned a summer of marches before the lockdown began, is currently planning a “physically distanced rally” in Edinburgh this month.

But on social media yesterday, it said it would ramp up its actions as soon as Ms Sturgeon announced the country was moving into the final phase of her lockdown exit.

It said the day she “announces Phase 4 we will call a date for a march & rally at Glasgow. Independence is an emergency”.

Phase 4, defined as when Covid is “no longer considered a significant threat to public health”, is when mass gatherings are able to resume.

In another post the group pledged: “Soon we will march for Independence #AUOB at Glasgow. 4 weeks after Phase 4 is announced there will be #Auobglasgow.”

The AUOB’S move came a day after Ms Sturgeon urged her party to tread softly on independence, rather than hector the public.

She told the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show: “When I and the SNP have not been talking about independence all the time but getting on with the job of autonomous decision-making [on Covid] and trying to get the right decisions to get the county through a crisis, support for independence appears to have increased.

“So maybe there is a bit of a lesson in there about show not tell.”

Last week, the former SNP MP George Kerevan criticised Ms Sturgeon for failing to attend AUOB events, calling it part of a “sharp right turn by the SNP leadership [that] threatens to demoralise the very working class voters who put the party into government”.

Another senior SNP figure yesterday flirted with the idea of a new independence party standing at the 2021 Holyrood election to maximise seats on the regional lists.

After MP Kenny Macaskill aired the idea last week, Inverclyde SNP leader Councillor Chris Mceleny said it could help “wipe out” the Scots Tories at Holyrood, as 24 of their 31 MSPS were elected via lists.

He said: “Next year’s election is shaping up to being a contest on who we want to make the choices about our future - Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings or the people of Scotland.

“If the Yes movement can come together to elect a pro independence majority it would effectively wipe out the Tories and blow away any legitimacy of Mr Johnson claiming independence is not the desired will of the people of Scotland.”