THE Yes DIY pages have promoted many of the excellent initiatives undertaken at grassroots level within the Yes movement, and indeed one of the reasons why The National started the slot was to share best-practice ideas.

One of those initiatives was a clever plan by Yes groups in Dumfries and Galloway to set up their own mobile indy hub – basically a van that takes the message about independence around this large area of southern Scotland.

Now the Dumfries and Galloway indy hub is in need of the Yes movement’s help with a new crowdfunding exercise that starts today.

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Ian Waugh wrote to tell us: “We’ve had our Dumfries and Galloway indy hub van on the road now since mid-2019 and it’s been doing a good job in promoting Scotland as an independent country. As well as it making for a highly visible presence in high streets around Dumfries and Galloway, we’ve supported local Yes groups when they’ve been having street stalls, or whatever, in their own towns.

“In addition, we’ve distributed approximately 5000 information packs featuring Believe in Scotland and Indy Posterboy graphics, handing them out in the streets but, more importantly, delivering directly into homes across our region by volunteers stuffing them through letterboxes.

“We now need ‘booster’ funding to keep the van on the road and to buy more printed material for the information packs and so we’ve set up a crowdfunder which is going live today at 11am.”

The crowdfunder page states: “Local Yes groups include former No supporters who have not only come over to Yes but are active in their new groups. We want to continue with our mutual support for all groups in south-west Scotland and the Borders and – in a region virtually devoid of billboards – to have the van parked up where local folk can read the graphics.

“Dumfries and Galloway – in common with the rest of Scotland – saw a notable rise in vote share for independence-supporting parties in last month’s General Election.

“But despite (or perhaps because of) that, the Westminster establishment is refusing even to ‘allow’ the people of Scotland to update their decision on independence for Scotland in a new referendum.

“Whatever route will now bring us our independence – indyref, Scottish Parliament elections or court action – we need to keep our presence felt and maintain the positive momentum, promoting Scotland and the potential benefits of running our own affairs in a world of equals.”

The link to the crowdfunder is bit.ly/37B22hK