MORE than 1000 people have signed up to join the new national membership organisation of the Yes movement within its first 24 hours.
Now Scotland, which is aiming to bring grassroots independence campaigners together, formally launched on Friday evening.
Committee member Andrew Wilson said the response indicated the positivity and enthusiasm of the 2014 referendum campaign was beginning to reappear.
He said: “The number of people who are joining is looking very encouraging and we are delighted at the response.
“We set up Now Scotland in a very short period of time – the election of the national committee was announced on December 3 and we now are up and running and operating with a campaigning website, which is fantastic.
“We have been really lucky as we have had support from all sorts of people across the Yes movement, and more widely from that – including people who haven’t campaigned for independence before.
“One of the purposes of Now Scotland is to help unity and to begin to ‘get the band back together again’ in a sense.”
The group – which is not a political party – has grown out of a series of assemblies held last year which were led by the All Under One Banner organisation.
The first campaign featured on its website nowscotland.scot is encouraging people to share their vision of what an independent Scotland could look like.
“We have seen Tweets from people saying they feel that how we are going about things is refreshing and reminds them of the enthusiasm and positivity which were the key elements of campaigning in 2013 and 2014,” Wilson said.
“We are working to unify and bring people together and get the positive message for independence across which the Yes movement has. “It is about giving the grassroots independence movement a voice.”
A 15-strong steering committee has been elected and the first national assembly is planned to be held online in March. Wilson said: “The intention is to provide an online environment in which the Yes movement can discuss and decide what it would like to see this year and what it would like to do this year.
“We can bring hundreds of people together, sitting in their own homes, to talk about what is important for them in terms of the independence campaigning in 2021 and perhaps identify some priorities.”
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