Now's the time and now's the hour...

When the Article 50 button has been pushed and people realise the clock is ticking, then it's going to look like Mike Reid's 70's TV show "Runaround" as everyone finally decides where they stand on Scottish independence.

Never has there been a better opportunity to ask the "You Yes Yet?" question to those in your communities who voted no.

English Party politics is filling the Scottish airwaves...

In the 'blue' camp, the Tory Party are hoisting May aloft as the next Maggie Thatcher. The election fraud they are accused of in 22 seats in England and Wales seem to have dropped off the radar. The BBC admit that 70% of their editorial comes from Tory Press Officers.

In the 'red' camp, the Labour Party seem hell bent on suicide. The Blairites and the Corbynites slug it out to the death. It is now apparent that even if Corbyn wins, the Blairites are intent on making the party unelectable in England.

Scotland looks on at this bampottery and says: 
"Why are we still attached to this red/blue Westminster? Why are we having to endure Tory Government after Tory Government? And why does it fill up our news programmes 24/7?"

Today we see the publication of poverty maps that show Scotland is surviving, not thriving, in the union. That far from being the equal society that we all want to live in, our nation is doing very badly out of the union. The latest GERS figures confirm that the union is dreadful for Scotland.

We have been taken out of the EU against our will and everything that we were promised on the lead up to the first independence referendum was a lie.

What's is it going to take to make those No voters that believed all the promises turn yes?

What is it going to take to get our people to realise that no matter how much they promise us, they will never deliver on those promises and that Scotland will be better off as an independent nation?

Get your people to start noticing the anti-Scottish independence propaganda. Get them to read past the headline of the newspaper story. Better still, get them to give up the unionist newspapers that are punting out anti-Scottish pap day in, day out.

There are lots of different types of No voters.They all arrived at their particular no from a different part of the compass. Therefore, we have to keep asking the "You Yes yet?" or the "What's it gonna take for you to vote yes?". 

Once you have found out why they voted no, you can start to make some movement on their compass. Never assume they were just too feart.

What you've got to do is get no voters away from the mindset that this is party political, it isn't. The struggle other countries went through to become free of London rule was never done in a party politics way.
We've been corralled like cattle by the mainstream media into taking a party political stance on independence. So loosen up the party chat and open up the possibility chat. Another Scotland is possible.

We can do this. There will be times when you don't have an answer to one of their questions, but make the time to find out and get back to them. And do get back to them. 

Invite them along to your Yes meetings. Let them hear your speakers. Listen to their questions. Let them be heard. 

I truly believe now that the only thing standing between Scotland and her independence is (and in this order): 

• BBC TV news
• BBC Scotland Radio
• Unionist newspapers
• Local newspapers
• BBC drip feeding propaganda through prime-time shows (Great British blah blah)

I wish you all the very best with your talks with No voters. Strike up those conversations. You might even get a hug.

Remember: 

It's not about Party Politics. 

It's about what's best for their Scotland.

[insert group name] for Indy

The Summer of Independence seems to be doing just fine without any assistance from party politics. In every village and town, city and shire of Scotland, the grassroots organisations that rose up in 2014 are getting their groups back together with the aim of further increasing support for Scottish Independence. Far from having voter fatigue from what seems like never-ending elections in Scotland since the first independence referendum, there is a definite spring in their step.

This time they are wiser, bolder, more experienced, better networked and much more media savvy. They are a force to be reckoned with. They are not bound by convention, by rules and regulations. They are independent.

The task ahead of the membership of these groups is fairly straightforward. Each yes voter from 2014 has to convince just one no voter to change their mind. They will not waste their energies on those who are solidly no. They will focus on those whose no vote was based on fear and on lies. The real aim is to bring voters over to yes by reaching out to those whose mind can be changed.

Brexit has given them an unexpected boost. They have already moved to capitalise on the fact that there are now those no voters who take the view, that the UK they voted to stay part of, is no longer planning to be in the EU. The welcome to the 'yes' side for these switchers has been warm and encouraging. Everybody knows someone who has changed their mind on Scottish independence because of Brexit. This has become the top 'material change' that has re-ignited the desire for Indyref 2.

The reason why there are so many different types of yes groups forming up is because this is not, and never was, about party politics. No-one voted yes for a political party. They voted yes for Scottish independence, for their nation to be free to decide what is best for Scotland.

Yes groups are reforming because there is work to do to change hearts and minds to yes and political parties don't have the reach to achieve that.

When Nicola Sturgeon is asked "when will you call Indyref2"? she always replies "That is a decision for the People of Scotland". 

That's you that is.

• The job of the grassroots is to connect and reconnect with Scots of independent mind.

• The job of the grassroots is to reach those whose only sources of information are the unionist broadcasters and unionist newspapers.

• The job of the grassroots is to bust unionist myths and scare tactics in our own communities.

• The job of the grassroots is to include no voters in their everyday discussions and to widen the sphere of 'yes' influence.

• The job of the grassroots is to recognise that people voted no for lots of different reasons and we need to find out what those reasons were (or are) before we can address them as individuals.

• The job of the grassroots is to paint a picture of an independent Scotland that the majority of Scots can buy into.

Branch meetings of political parties don't do that - they're not designed to do that. Branch meetings of yes groups are free to.

When you go along to a yes group meeting, you'll hear people talk of "the first independence referendum" like it was just their first attempt at independence. They are not going to give up after their first try. They are deliciously determined to see Scotland flourish as an independent nation. They are not just talking shops or echo chambers, they are hubs where you can gain the confidence to speak to no voters with the knowledge you need to get them to yes.

We don't get to be independent without switching no voters. We do that by starting the conversation "are you YES yet?" 

                              Print by Stewart Bremner      
                              http://www.stewartbremner.co.uk/


Some stuff to be getting on with:

Start by wearing your yes badge every day.
Find your local yes group on Facebook and Twitter and make contact with them.
Be ready.
Get connected to the National Yes Registry.

Click here

http://nationalyesregistry.scot/accessible/

Silly Season

It's the silly season and in the spirit of silliness, the Labour Party have gone absolutely batshitmental. Democracy... pah! They don't do democracy! They're using the huge pot of cash new Labour members have given them in membership fees to stop the new membership from voting in their leadership election.

And they have loads of cash to splash. From a worrying debt situation in 2015, Labour are now £55m in the black. And that's down to new members cash.

Heads I win tails you lose

Five new members have taken the Labour Party to court. Having won the right to vote in a High Court ruling, the membership now have the added cost of fighting Labour's appeal against their win. They appealed! Using membership money! Again! You couldn't make this stuff up. It's fascinating and cringeworthy in equal measure. 


Sticks and stones

Labour have started calling their new members "Jihadists", "Trots", "Dogs", "Rabble" and an "arm-twisting mob" and to add insult to injury, Labour have now grabbed a big brush and are furiously attempting to tar 350,000 new members as the "militant tendency" that Labour threw out in the 1980's.

Elementary my dear Watson

Tom Watson the deputy leader of the party has gone off on a tirade about Corbyn's street meetings as "weaponising boredom". Whit? What does that even mean? Watson has also gone off half-cocked with a ridiculous tale of a letter that Labour members are sending out to people to tell them how to infiltrate the party to ensure it's destruction. Trouble is, Watson used a letter from the 1980's that appeared in Michael Crick's book on the Militant tendency... from the 1980's. Do your homework Tom! Due diligence Tom!
The plotters are racking up a roll call of people who have ruled agianst them: The Speaker, the High Court, the Information Commissioner, the Royal Courts and the ASA. The incompetence is breath-taking.

Bite the hand that feeds

One of Labour's master election strategists, John McTernan, has called upon the Tory Govt (whom he occasionally does gigs for) to crush the RMT. The Labour Party! The Labour Party that was founded by the Trade Union movement as their political arm! This guy is a card carrying member of the Party... and a Blairite.

Caveat Emptor

The Advertising Standards Authority has just ruled that Labour are in breach of their Advertising Standards code by offering membership which offered a vote and then denied a vote for the leadership contest. Look out for the ASA's announcement on their website.

Gie's a go

You're sitting down right? 

Owen Smith has asked Corbyn if he can come along to his rallies and address the crowd cos he canny get people to come along to his public speaking events without laying on free ice-cream.... 

Meanwhile.... in "Special Branch"

The remnants of 'Scattish' Labour have gone off into the red corner and the blue corner and are not talking to each other.... so there! The hapless Ms Dugdale who leads the Accounting Unit is diametrically opposed to her deputy Alex Rowley. She's a Blairite, he's a Corbynista. It's messy. Ice cream and jelly all over the place.

The Banning Blair Affair

Labour's NEC have banned the word "Blairite" and you now can get kicked out of the Labour Party for calling a fellow member a Blairite. 

Instead of appointing QCs and Barristers to stop the membership from voting in the leadership election, they should appoint divorce specialists because Labour isn't a big tent... unless you mean a circus.