One last thing
We’ve been sat in front of this screen ALL DAY today, as you hopefully may have noticed from the flurry of posting activity. Time to clock off for the evening, we think. But just before we go, we wanted to share something with you. The YesGlasgow group had its first meeting this evening, at the Radisson Blu on Argyle Street. (It’s going on as we write this.) There’s a picture of it below.
Here’s another one.
And here’s another of what Alex Massie of the Spectator rather sourly called an “incredibly small” attendance with Yes chief Blair Jenkins and Dennis Canavan.
(Massie seems to have come back from his Christmas holiday a rather crankier and more dogmatic flavour of Unionist than his previous thoughtful one, which is a shame.)
Finally, there’s a panorama of the whole room here.
For no particular reason, we thought you might like to also see a shot of the “Better Together” campaign’s own big-name event last week, which drew a crowd to see No boss and former Chancellor Of The Exchequer, political heavyweight Alistair Darling.
We’re just going to leave that there. See you tomorrow, readers.
‘Night Stu. Thanks for all your hard work today
You were sitting in front of the screen, methinks….
Sorry, I’ll get me coat.
Seconded.
It’s been a tough day for the yessers, but in a way it’s also been a great day.
So much enjoyed yr running commentary on the Sect. 30 debate. Thanks. G’night.
@breichsnp
Any face shots of the Better Together crowd? It would be interesting to see if they were so happy and smiley as the YES crowd. Perhaps they did not want to be identified.
Oh come on, i make it about 15 people at the better together meeting. And one of them is in desert combats, so presumably capt darling has a paramilitary wing now too.
Take a well-earned rest, Rev. Your contributions are much appreciated.
OT – just for information I had an email warning from the Herald – too many links. Asked for more detail of what is allowed, and it is as per the comments guidelines basically, government and council websites. Definitely not political party or other news sites or blogs! So that’s fair enough, and I kind of remember years ago, some silly legal case about links being a breach of copyright of the linked site, so I guess they’d have to ask permission of every linked site owner for that “use of copyright”.
I had to confirm I’d follow the rules to keep my pre-moderated status
Perhaps I should get banned, get a life again!
Edit: a couple of links they removed were to SCFF and a university website. Oh, it’s OK to describe the source, so people can google it.
Love the picture Rev, by my quick headcount poll, the NO’s outnumber the YES’s by about 100 to one. Oh, wait a minute …
Played a blinder today Rev. A wee half in order?
Thanks Rev. Could hardly keep up with the pace you were firing out the articles. Much appreciated.
Well well well…those pictures really tell a story and it explains all the fire and fury coming from the Unionists that you reported on in todays’ articles. Even with almost full backing from their complicit msm, alls not well in the no camp. Bitter together indeed!
I think that the people willing to turn out on a dreich January night are our secret weapon. It seems to me that there are very few activists left on the Unionist side.
And you really, really need activists if you are going to win. The Obama campaigns (both of them) ought to have taught any politician that isn’t a surrogate for a monkey with a red rosette that, at least. For they think alienating your base is a work of incredible genius.
Well, even the monkey held its hands over it’s face at that one…..
___________________________________________
It is boots on the ground that will win this for us.
If I had known this event was on, I’d have been there. Could this site highlight these burgeoning groups?
@Morag.
Yes. I spotted that ‘sat’ as well Morag. But as the poor guy has been sitting all day long I won’t mention it.
douglas clark @ 9:16pm
Suggest you monitor #indyref and #YesScot twitter feeds
Positive trumps negative….always has and always will!!!!
Just back from the meeting – a well run, well attended and heartening event.
Good speeches.
Sure to strike fear into the hearts of all Unionist Haddies.
Roll on 2014.
Good day’s work Rev., well done!
Thanks for the efforts Rev. Will take me to the end of the week to digest all today’s posts and read all the comments!
Indion,
Thanks.
Once I’ve worked out what the heck they are and how I access them I will!
Re-reading that it sounded quite snarky, my apologies, we are not all that computer literate.
Apparently, I have now downloaded Twitter though you wouldn’t think it to look at my screen.
How much did the better together mob pay to get out?
@Rev Stu
Well done on a good day of posts!
And those are great photos of the audience with their yes cards! It’s a shame Blair Jenkins doesn’t get more air time.
Was at the meeting tonight. Fantastic event, with some really inspiring speeches. Let’s do this!
Matt:
Any insights?
Looks like an inspiring evening.
If we can get these springing up in all our major cities and towns then the sky is the limit.
Thanks for all the good posts today, Rev.
I hope this has been enlightening for those who think Glasgow is anti-independence and will be tough to win over. Remember the demographics which are most likely to be for and against independence, then think of Glasgow’s population.
Two pictures tell more than 2000 words.
The YES mob? What a crowd of smiling, enthused, ordinary people.
The NO (Better Together) audience? Can’t really tell because the pic shows their bald patches rather than their faces. Far fewer of them, though. Even with the chance of seeing a “celebrity” like a former Chancellor and the head of the togetherness campaign.
The NOs don’t understand the groundswell, or any swell; the YESs are paddling hard to catch that wave, and succeeding.
Beginning to think there’s more than one of you, Rev…lol!
Keep it up, regardless…amazing job!
(After 2 days of non-stop blog-lurking)
Headline in The Sun the morning after the referendum:
IT’S THE REV WOT WON IT.
(Sycophants R Us)
I’m rather jealous of Glasgow. I moved back to Aberdeen 2 and a half years ago, and over the past 12 months they’ve had a lot of exciting Scottish politics stuff going on – the Yes Glasgow event is about 6 times the size as our one in Aberdeen was, and every grouping seems to stem from Glasgow, like the Radical Indy Conference last year. If you want to be involved in politics, Glasgow seems to be the place to be, and I bet it’s going to be really exciting over the next two years.
On the either hand, it means having to live in Glasgow…
Insights? Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ll give it a go….
I know it’s a lot easier to speak to a room full of people who agree with you, but I would defy anyone who is not hardcore unionist to have been there tonight and not been infected with the energy, enthusiasm and excitement in the room.
Nicola Sturgeon was absolutely brilliant once again. I think it’s already been said on here but, the more coverage she gets in the run-up to the referendum, the more certain a Yes result becomes. Between her, Denis Canavan, Cat Boyd with her many Jimmy Reid quotes, and Blair Jenkins, they managed to wonderfully articulate all the positive ideas that surround this campaign.
The way I see it, we’ve already won the argument, but that was the easy part. The hard part, the important part, will be communicating that message to the electorate. It won’t be an easy task, but as Blair Jenkins pointed out at the end, if every person who currently intends to vote Yes can convince just one other person who is currently No or undecided, then we’ve won.
PS: Look out for Dennis Canavan’s anecdote about the Glasgow University Labour club. It’s an absolute cracker and I wouldn’t do it justice, so hopefully it will appear on youtube at some point.
The motivation for the Yes campaign does seem to be far stronger than the competition.
@Rev Stu
Aye, well done today!
Unless you’ve run a busy blog, or any ‘ongoing’ and ‘live’ website for that matter, you don’t fully understand just how much work is involved, especially if it’s a one-person job!
Kept me from doing all the stuff I was supposed to do today, right enough…:) Nah, that stuff doesn’t matter! What matters to me is that January 16, 2013 was a day when yet more people, and not only in Scotland, realised, via blogs such as this, that positivity and the can-do attitude of all Scots of all creeds and colours and none is the future that Scotland deserves and will get by voting ‘Yes’ in the 2014 referendum – not the hopelessness, negativity and the ‘we say ye cannae’-attitude shown in such a disgraceful and embarrassing manner by the ‘No’ naysayers in Westminster.
Terrific. And I think we all know that if we don’t win the greater Glasgow area we don’t win the referendum.
We have smashing YES Cowal shop which has been running in Dunoon now since end of October. Every day at least one person (and very often a lot more)has come in to sign the declaration, debate with us or offer to help.
These are intelligent, well informed people so I think indeed we have won the arguement.
What is highly satisfying is that with some S/Os and daily donations the shop is comfortably paying for itself and producing a surplus. I’ll need to get some photos of it.
You know, and it`s been said before, but, it fair warms your heart to see the joy and excitement on the people`s faces at the YesGlasgow meeting. Just say Yes; it`s good for you!
OT: RevStu, I saw this picture on Bella Caledonia to-day. I seem to remember you used (or created) it for one of your articles. If so, are you able to give a link?
@mutterings
I happen to have that one bookmarked!
link to wingsland.podgamer.com
scottish_skier says:I happen to have that one bookmarked!
Very high quality product, on a par with the “Bottle this – Not this” poster.
“The YesGlasgow group had its first meeting this evening, at the Radisson Blu on Argyle Street.”
Aye, great turnout, and a rum looking lot they are too. Guaranteed to intimidate the effete independence deniers. I’m sure I saw that front row at a Johnny Cash concert in Folsom Prison.
Stu Would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work yesterday , if you are not careful you will end up with R.S.I and we all need you fit and healthy to fight the good fight over the next 2 years . This is me just trying to get upto date with the events of yesterday and reading all the posts this morning I am beginning to believe that the tide is now beginning to turn our way .
And Darling had publicity for his tour and he still didn’t draw flies.
link to bbc.co.uk
I have a suspicion that the 2 day brit nat hate fest might have upset the Scottish psyche and turned people against them . I was on newsnet on Tuesday night when my wife asked to borrow my laptop , when I passed it over it still had the story about davidsons comments on bannockburn , she left davidson without a leg to stand on . If the unionists can upset my wife who does not do politics and likes to live in her own little bubble then there is hope that they have upset a lot more people with their tantrums .
It is true what they say, “a picture paints a thousands words”, or in this case, a lot of empty seats.
I’ve only just noticed, but in that last photie Alastair Darling seems to have attracted some pretty high level support – Stormin Norman Schwartzkopf from the first Gulf War.
Two meetings, chalk and cheese, fantastic turn out for the YesGlasgow group, well done to all the organisers and participants. It looked a great evening.
And the No meeting on Darling’s listening tour, well if he gave each participant 5 min of his ear, he’d still be heading home within the hour! He must feel a tad humiliated, surely there’s an easier way for him to earn the ermine!
In vain I look for any picures or coverage of this in today’s papers
With regards to Alex Massie, I think that he is a thoroughly miserable naysayer.
Here is a sample from his latest blog:
This week’s Think Scotland column takes a gander, just for once, at the Scottish Green party. Patrick Harvie’s party is in favour of Scottish independence for reasons that, frankly, seem pretty damn unconvincing. I suspect that the Greens, like those parts of the far-left that also favour independence, are liable to be desperately disappointed by life in an independent Scotland and that they will come to realise that it is not much better than their present miserable existence within the United Kingdom.
link to blogs.spectator.co.uk;
I was at the Yes Glasgow launch last night. A few observations:
– You could have doubled or tripled the attendance had the event received wider coverage (had its invitation list not, as I understand, been compiled solely from emails to some Yes declaration signatories)
– As mentioned above, please, no more superficial assumptions about Glasgow and Glaswegians of the kind that were made with reference to the fact that young Ms Quinn’s (letter to a Unionist) location was Glasgow. As last night showed there are plenty of people willing to step forward in this city.
– Nicola gave a barnstorming peformance. It was needed as the contributor from the Greens, though well meaning, is not a public speaker
– To Dennis C – Dennis, we all appreciate and value greatly your input to this campaign but please, curtail the ‘I’m not a Nationalist for emotional reasons’ line – many of us in the SNP are pragmatic nationalists too, and while we understand you’re reaching out to Labour voters we’re not, by implication, all dewy-eyed Bravehearts in the SNP either. And let us stop talking about ‘opinion polls’ too, they are meaningless at this stage.
Overall, heartening and encouraging. The solution to the problem of an overwhelmingly hostile MSM and state broadcaster is clear – every single person in that room and hundreds, thousands, more need to get the message direct into every home, armed with vibrant Yes material.
Seasick Dave – he’s basically saying “you won’t get what you want, so you might as well stick with the current crap”. Which, to be honest, is unionism in a nutshell: don’t dare to dream, just accept your lot and be done with it.
Training Day
Were the members of the audience given material or tasks to take away with them to follow up?
scottish_skier, thanks for the link. I gave up bookmarking long ago – too many good articles.
Doug
I suppose that there is a touch of irony that he is writing for the Spectator because that’s exactly what he is.
The future is ours to shape and nothing Mr Massie or his ilk can throw from the sidelines can detract from that.
Onwards and upwards!
@Seasick Dave
There was a short promotional leaflet answering basic questions on independence, a registration form with an invitation to outline how respondents could participate in the Yes campaign in future, a Yes card (as you see in the pictures above) and a Yes pen! I trust that other material will soon be forthcoming (e.g. summary of McCrone, a two-sider with ten reasons to vote Yes, ten consequences of voting No etc.)
“ten consequences of voting No etc.”
That reminds me, I was interested to hear Blair Jenkins use the “vote No, get Nothing” maxim last night. Was it RevStu that came up with it?
@Matt
I forgot to mention that! A shameless lift from the good author of this blog – some form of legal redress may be required?
“PS: Look out for Dennis Canavan’s anecdote about the Glasgow University Labour club. It’s an absolute cracker”
It really was, wasn’t it? I hope the media allow people to hear much, much more from people like Canavan and Boyd. Sturgeon is certainly one of the best speakers we have, but it’s vital people hear the passion and arguments from beyond the SNP.
I was trying to talk round a die-hard Labour voter after the event, oddly enough, and it felt like talking to a brick wall. The only flicker of “WTF” I got was when I mentioned Davidson’s dictatorship line and that was not to believe anyone would say such a thing without backup proof. What I was basically getting was “you SNP fuckers…etc, etc”
It’s people like Canavan they’ll (hopefully) listen to. Though if they could be shown just how dire their labour reps really are that would also help I think.
“PS: Look out for Dennis Canavan’s anecdote about the Glasgow University Labour club. It’s an absolute cracker”
In what way might we “look out for” it? Is there video somewhere?
I’m not sure if there’s a video link yet – not seen it if there is. It was being recorded though, so it must be about, and I certainly hope we’ll hear it again. It’s well worth repeating and repeating, especially given the Westminster debate.
Now we’re just teasing you, eh Rev? But really it couldn’t be done justice summarised here.
I believe that all the YES events have been recorded. Not sure where they are for viewing though. Perhaps there’s a plan to release at some point?
Does this have it? It’s Dennis Canavan speaking last night but I’m at work so can’t test whether said anecdote is in there
link to youtube.com
Some investigative digging around that story would be wonderful…
Cath
Nope, that’s only 30 seconds’ worth and no anecdotes!
It’ll be out there somewhere.
Ah, Yes Scotland have just said full ones are coming soon.
Regarding Dennis Canavan and his favourite wee soundbite of, ”I’m not a nationalist; I’m an internationalist”.
Well Dennis, that’s like saying ‘I don’t like the idea of batchelors, but I want a divorce’.
Give it a rest Mr. Canavan. You can’t have internationalism without nations.
I AM a nationalist, and I AM an internationalist.
Canavan speech at Yes Glasgow launch now on Yes Scotland website:
link to yesscotland.net
That still just seems to be the 30-second snippet.
‘That still just seems to be the 30-second snippet’
Ah, sorry all – I am blocked from seeing the video at work and just assumed it would be the full speech. Get the finger out Yes Scotland!