Yes Scotland

Yes Scotland was the organisation representing the parties, organisations, and individuals campaigning for a ''Yes'' vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It was launched on 25 May 2012 and dissolved in late 2014 after Scotland voted against independence.

Yes Scotland's chief executive was Blair Jenkins, and Dennis Canavan was the chair of its advisory board. Stephen Noon, a long term employee and policy writer of the SNP, was Yes Scotland's chief strategist. Its principal opponent in the independence campaign was the unionist Better Together campaign.

By the formal start of the referendum campaign period in May 2014, it had become the "biggest grassroots movement in Scottish political history", said Jenkins. The campaign did not win independence, but "transformed politics in Scotland", suggested '' The Herald''.

History

Establishment

Yes Scotland was launched in Edinburgh on 25 May 2012. The launch featured actors Alan Cumming and Brian Cox. A few days after the official launch, the campaign was forced to make changes to its website; this was after people who followed its Twitter feed had been listed on the website as supporters of the campaign.

Yes Scotland officially opened its campaign staff headquarters on 19 November 2012 in Hope Street, Glasgow. The headquarters were open to the public. By February 2013, Yes Scotland employed 17 people full-time.

In March 2013, a number of Yes Scotland activists promoted the movement at bedroom tax protests throughout Scotland.

Finances

Yes Scotland first disclosed its finances in April 2013, revealing it had taken over £1.6m in donations.

In July 2013, the ''Sunday Herald'' reported that there were "persistent rumours" of funding problems within Yes Scotland, and suggested that these were related to Jacqueline Caldwell and Susan Stewart leaving the campaign organisation. The organisation "shared out" the women's responsibilities between other employees instead of replacing them.

Campaigning

Throughout 2013, Yes Scotland launched specially targeted campaign groups like ''Veterans for Independence'', ''Farming for Yes'', and ''Crofters for Yes''.

In August 2013, the chief executive of Better Together, Blair MacDougall, accused figures within Yes Scotland of "copy ng his campaign's slogan "best of both worlds" to "reassure voters over independence". In response, a senior SNP source said that "It's arrogant of the No campaign to claim ownership of language."

Later in August, Yes Scotland filed a police complaint that its internal emails had been accessed illegitimately. Details of the particular email that was accessed were not initially released, but it was later revealed to be correspondence with Elliot Bulmer in connection with an article he wrote for the ''Herald'' in July, ''A Scottish constitution to serve the commonweal''. Their campaign opponents, Better Together, accused Yes Scotland of "secretly paying off supposedly impartial experts" and urged an inquiry, as Bulmer is research director of the Constitutional Commission, a registered charity which states that it has no political alignment. Yes Scotland said the payment was a "nominal fee for the considerable time and effort ulmerspent" on the piece, and its content was not influenced.

Then, the ''Telegraph'' reported that Police Scotland were opening a hacking inquiry in response to a complaint received from the campaign about internal emails that appeared to have been accessed illegitimately and leaked to the media.

At the end of 2014, chief executive Blair Jenkins sent a message to supporters to join the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Greens or the Scottish Socialist Party to ensure that campaigners "keep the spirit alive". By that point, many of the social media groups previously using the 'Yes' term had switched to using 'the 45%' or variations thereon, basing the new name on the percentage of votes for their side in the referendum.

Participation

The campaign was an alliance of the governing Scottish National Party, Solidarity, the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Green Party. The Scottish Green Party co-convener Patrick Harvie helped launch the campaign but following this had expressed some reservations. Harvie told the Green's conference in October 2012 that he felt the campaign had become fully inclusive, and the party members voted for "full participation" in the campaign. The organisation also collaborated with Labour for Independence, an organisation for pro-independence supporters of the Scottish Labour Party. In 2013, Yes Scotland covered the £245 accommodation bill for LFI's first conference.

Other groups supporting a ''Yes'' vote include Women for Independence and Business for Scotland.

The campaign had endorsements by several high-profile figures residing outwith Scotland, including Hollywood actor Alan Cumming, James Bond star Sir Sean Connery, and actor Brian Cox.

Advisory board

Donations

In April 2013, the campaign revealed that it had received over £1.6m in donations since its launch the preceding May. Roughly £1.3m of this came from five donors, including the two EuroMillions winners, Christine and Colin Weir. A contribution to the value of £342,797 was provided by the Scottish National Party to "fund the start-up and staffing costs including the official launch on May 25, 2012".

Yes Declaration

The campaign aimed to have one million residents of Scotland sign its "Yes Declaration", a statement of intent to support the independence of Scotland. Signatures could be input electronically by supporters using the campaign's website, and were also collected by grassroots activists who were encouraged to campaign in their local communities and around Scotland at appropriate events. The declaration read:

The '' Sunday Mail'' newspaper reported that by 1 July 2012 approximately 22,000 people had signed the declaration and almost 8000 signed up to the cause on the first day, 'prompting organisers to remove a counter from their website'. The newspaper went further by stating that 'There was more embarrassment when it emerged they used actors in a picture on the site.' In September, Alex Salmond announced that Yes Scotland had gathered over 100,000 signatures for the Yes Declaration. By St. Andrew's Day of the same year, the figure had risen to 143,000, to which a Better Together spokesman responded that ″If they want to sign up enough Scots to win a majority, they will still be chasing signatures in 2018" The total reached 372,103 by 24 May 2013, and 789,191 by 9 June 2014. On 22 August 2014, Yes Scotland announced that they had exceeded their target of 1 million signatures.

See also

Scotland

* All Under One Banner
* Labour for Independence
* Women for Independence
* National Collective
* Yes California
* Better Together (campaign)

Related movements

* Welsh independence
* All Under One Banner Cymru
* YesCymru
* United Ireland
* Ireland's Future

References

External links

*
Yes Declaration

{{2014 Scottish independence referendum

2012 establishments in Scotland
2012 in British politics
Cross-party campaigns
Organizations established in 2012
Political campaigns in the United Kingdom
Scottish nationalist organisations
Private companies limited by guarantee of Scotland
2014 Scottish independence referendum